BACALAO FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Hello, springtime! Welcome to spring flowers and rain showers, to orange blossoms and artichokes. Oh, hello Holy Week too. Let’s bring them all together in a bowl—salt cod for a Lenten meal and spring’s fresh vegetables, artichokes, fava beans, and green onions. 

This recipe combines salt cod and spring vegetables with fideos, a kind of pasta. The dish comes from Albacete and Murcia (eastern Spain) where it is a traditional dish for Semana Santa, Holy Week, which begins tomorrow with Palm Sunday. 

Fideos are the same as vermicelli noodles, only in Murcia they are known as aletría. This word comes from the Arabic, itriyya, meaning threads of dried pasta. In case you were wondering where pasta came from, yep, the Arabs (Moors) introduced pasta made with hard durum wheat to Spain (and southern Italy) back in medieval times.

Pasta with Salt Cod

Aletría (Fideos) con Bacalao

Fideo noodles cook right in the pan with vegetables and cod. Saffron adds a sunny yellow.

Fresh artichokes, fava beans, green onions, potatoes and cauliflower go into this pasta dish.

Start this recipe two or three days before you intend to serve it as the salt cod needs to be soaked for 36 to 48 hours. Soaking in several changes of water rehydrates the flesh and removes the salt.

Most cuts of dry salt cod will have skin and bones. Soaking followed by a plunge in boiling water make it easy to pull the softened flesh away from the bones. If you start out with 12 ounces of dry cod, you’ll have 7 to 8 ounces of fish pieces after removing skin and bones. 

The artichokes can be cooked in the pan along with the potatoes or, if preferred, cooked separately and added to the dish at the end. (Frozen artichoke hearts can be substituted for the fresh ones.)

Peeled fava beans.

Fava beans: to skin or not to skin? Home cooks (and me) use the shelled favas as they are, with the outer skins. But they are a lovely spring green if you first blanch them in boiling water, then pinch the inner fava from its skin. And they don’t need additional cooking, can be scattered on top of the fideos. (When I prepared the dish that appears in the photos, I added half the favas, unskinned, to the pan with the cauliflower. The remainder I peeled the skins and added the green favas to the pasta at the end of cooking.)

 

Green onions don't have a bulb.

Use green onions—also called scallions—if they are available (cebolletas in Spanish). Chop some of the green part as well as the white. They need only a minute to sauté. If you’re lucky enough to find green garlic shoots, substitute them for the garlic cloves. 

Green garlic shoots.

Use No.4 fideos, the fattest ones, or else the Catalan-style pasta called fideua, which are short, thin noodles with pinholes. If fideos are not available, use spaghetti broken into 2-inch lengths.

Cod (left) has been soaked and bones removed.

Serves 4.

12-16 ounces dry salt cod

6 cups water

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 cup chopped green onion

2 cloves chopped garlic

Pinch of saffron threads

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika, not smoked)

½ cup peeled and chopped tomato

2 medium artichokes 

2 medium potatoes (8 ounces)

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup shelled fava beans

1 cup fideo noodles (4.5 ounces)

Chopped parsley, to serve

Cut the piece of cod crosswise into 3 or 4 sections (include fins too). Rinse them in cold water to remove excess salt. Place them in a nonreactive container and cover with cold water. Cover and refrigerate 10 to 12 hours. Drain the cod, rinse it, and cover with fresh water. Refrigerate. Change the water every 10 to 12 hours until de-salted, usually 36 to 48 hours. (Thin pieces or cut-up cod may need less soaking.) 

Bring 6 cups of water to a full boil. Place the pieces of cod in the water and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Let the cod soak 5 minutes. Lift it out with a slotted spoon. Save the water for cooking the pasta.

When the cod is cool enough to handle, use fingers to pull off skin and all the bones. (Skin and fins can be added to the reserved water and cooked 5 minutes.) The cod will naturally break up into bite-size pieces. Reserve them.

Heat the oil in a large pan or deep skillet. Fry the pine nuts until golden and skim them out. Add the onion and garlic to the pan on medium heat and sauté until the onion is softened, 2 minutes. Add the saffron, cumin and pimentón. Immediately add the chopped tomato. Keep frying the mixture until the tomatoes are reduced, 5 minutes.

Prepare the artichokes by removing outer leaves. Cut them in half and add the halves to the pan. Peel the potatoes and cut them into irregular 1-inch pieces. Add the potatoes to the pan. 

Strain the cod water (discard any solids) and add it to the pan. Season with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add the fava beans and cauliflower and cook 5 minutes. (Potatoes should be tender.) Raise the heat so the water comes to a boil and add the fideo noodles. Lower heat to medium and cook the pasta 10 to 12 minutes until it is al dente (or according to package directions). The pasta should be a little soupy, not dry. 

Add the pieces of cod to the pan and mix with the noodles. (If using pre-cooked artichokes, tuck them in now as well.) Heat thoroughly. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to set 5 minutes. Scatter the pine nuts on top and sprinkle with chopped parsley to serve. 

For another version of this dish, make the cod dumplings in this recipe for Chickpeas and Spinach with Salt Cod Dumplings. After frying the dumplings, add them to the fideos to finish cooking.

More recipes for springtime and Holy Week:

Broth with Fish and Clams.

Cod Fritters with Molasses.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings.

Sweet Toasts (Torrijas).

Creamy Rice Pudding.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Bread Rolls with Egg (Hornazos).

HAM FINALE: DOWN TO THE BARE BONES

Chicken-noodle soup with a difference--the broth is made with a ham bone as well as chicken and bits of ibérico ham garnish the soup.

 My gorgeous ibérico ham has finally come to an end. Ben sliced me a last plateful—one last mollete with tomato, olive oil and ham. Then he carved out some thicker strips and dismembered the bones. 

Diced ham for cooking.

Those strips, cut into taquitos, dice, I’ll use in cooking and for garnishes. The ham dice is terrific in omelets, with scrambled eggs, in croquettes. The ham should never be fried, like you fry bacon, or it hardens and becomes stringy. Fold in the ham at the end of cooking time. 

By the way, although the ham has darkened in the month or more since it was broached, the flesh is still juicy, as ibérico ham has a lot of fat marbling that keeps it from drying out. 

Nothing left but the pata negra, black hoof.

With some of the bones, I’m making ham stock to stash in the freezer. It’s the perfect addition to split pea soup and lentils and for soups such as picadillo, rich broth with garnishes (that recipe is below).

To make ham stock

Use 2 to 3 pounds of bones from cured ham, ibérico or serrano (preferably sawed into pieces). Place them in a large stock pot and cover with 3 to 4 quarts of water. Add a sliced onion, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 2 bay leaves and additional aromatics, as desired (pepper, cloves, thyme, etc.) Add 2 teaspoons salt. Bring the water to a boil. Keep skimming off all the foam that rises to the top. Reduce heat so the water bubbles gently. Cook the stock, covered, 90 minutes. 

Discard the bones. Raise the heat and boil the stock 10 minutes. Strain the stock through a colander. Once cool, strain the stock through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Divide it into portions. Refrigerate or freeze.

Pictured at left are cubes of frozen ham stock, ready to add to soups. The background for the photo is a new apron (thanks Marina) that depicts bellotas, the acorns that ibérico pigs eat.

Should you be so lucky as to have the remnants of a ham, here are some ideas for how to use them.

A literary dish--Duelos y Quebrantos are what Don Quixote ate on Saturdays. Basically, eggs scrambled with ham fat, chorizo and diced ham.

A rice dish typical of the dehesa, the woodlands in western Spain where ibérico pigs are raised. Chunks of fresh ibérico pork go into the rice which is finished with a scattering of slivered ham.

Ham Croquettes

Croquetas de Jamón

Mince the ham scraps to incorporate in the thick bechamel for forming croquettes. Use some ham fat with the oil for the bechamel and infuse the milk with a piece of ham bone. The full recipe for ham croquettes is here.

In Andalusia, sopa de picadillo might be served as the first course of a special dinner or it might make an easy supper for the family, using broth leftover from the puchero pot.

Garnished Chicken Soup with Ham

Sopa de Picadillo

This Andalusian soup traditionally is made with the caldo, broth, from a puchero, a boiled dinner containing chicken, beef, ham bone and vegetables. Or, the broth can be quickly made with store-bought chicken consommé simmered 30 minutes with a chunk of ibérico or serrano ham bone. In my case, I added the frozen ham stock to a chicken carcass along with the usual aromatics. Be sure to skim the broth as it comes to a boil. After cooking, ladle the soup through a fine sieve so that it’s as clear as possible. The broth can be made in advance and refrigerated. Skim off any fat that congeals on the surface before reheating it. 

Be sure to taste the broth and add salt if necessary before cooking the noodles. Thin fideos—angel hair pasta—is the usual type of noodle cooked with this soup. But, any size vermicelli or other soup noodle can be used. Adjust cooking time as needed. Rice can be cooked in the broth instead of fideos.

Have all the additions to the soup—cooked chicken, carrots, egg and ham—at room temperature or warm before heating the broth and cooking the noodles. The additions can be added to the soup pot or tureen or dished into individual bowls.

Make a rich broth, add garnishes.

Serves 4 

6 cups chicken-ham broth

Salt, if needed

1 cup angel hair soup noodles (4 ounces)

1 tablespoon dry Sherry (optional)

5-6 ounces diced cooked chicken 

Cooked and sliced carrots 

1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

2 ounces ibérico or serrano ham, cut in dice or thin strips

1 cup croutons of fried bread

Sprigs of fresh mint

Place the broth in a pan, bring to a boil and add the noodles. Cook the noodles al dente, 3 minutes. Add the Sherry, if using. Remove the pan from the heat and divide the soup between four shallow soup bowls.

Add the chicken, carrots, egg, ham and croutons to the hot soup. Garnish each bowl with a mint sprig. Serve immediately.

The scent of fresh mint complements the savory aromas of this soup.

Eggs Scrambled with Ham

Duelos y Quebrantos

Duelos y Quebrantos is a very old La Mancha dish—what Don Quixote ate on Saturdays, you will recall. A simple dish of eggs scrambled with fatty bits of ham and, sometimes with the addition of lambs’ brains. Unconscionably delicious, though it might require increasing the cholesterol medication. 

Cook the eggs in rendered pork fat or in a combination of olive oil and fat. If you’ve got the remnants of an ibérico or serrano ham, dice some of the fat (tocino) as well as the lean. If no ham is to hand, use bacon for both fat and ham. Should you have reason to use lambs’ brains, blanch them in salted water, cut into small pieces and sauté them with the chorizo. 

With salty chorizo and ham scrambled with the eggs, salt is probably not needed. 

The following recipe, using two eggs, makes one serving or, if served as a tapa, two servings. If making a larger batch, instead of breaking the eggs right into the skillet, place them in a bowl and beat them lightly before adding to the skillet.

1 ounce chorizo

1 ounce ham fat, pancetta or bacon

1 ounce ibérico or serrano ham

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large eggs

Freshly ground black pepper

Salt (optional)

Chopped scallions or parsley to garnish

Fried bread to accompany

Remove chorizo from its casing and dice it. Cut the fat in dice. Cut the ham in dice or thin strips.  

Break eggs right into the skillet.

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the diced chorizo and fat. Fry them gently, turning, until the fat is rendered and they are lightly browned, 4 minutes. 

Break the eggs into the skillet. Keep the heat on medium. Use a wooden spoon to stir the eggs, breaking up the yolks. As the eggs begin to set, fold in the ham. Remove the eggs when they reach the desired consistency, creamy-soft or completely set. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, if desired. Garnish with scallions. Serve immediately accompanied by triangles or croutons of fried bread.

Rice with Ibérico Pork and Ham

Arroz con Ibérico

This rice dish is layered with porky flavor—fresh pork, pork fat, ham stock and strips of ibérico ham. Fresh ibérico pork is widely available in Spain. Most hams and fresh ibérico meat are from cross-breed pigs that are fed pig feed. From specialty butchers, you might find fresh pork that is 100 percent ibérico de bellota—meat from all-ibérico pigs that have been finished on bellotas—acorns. 

Any of the usual cuts—lagarto, pluma, secreto, presa, solomillo—are fine for this recipe. For my version, I cut the bone away from a thick-cut loin chop and trimmed the excess fat to use for browning the meat. 

Ibérico pork is best cooked to medium-rare, still pink on the inside. The meat retains some of the fat, which keeps it juicy. It will be sufficiently cooked after the browning process. Remove the pieces of meat from the pan while the rice cooks and return them at the end of the cooking time.

Use medium-short-grained (round) rice, the same kind used for paella. Bomba is the best rice variety for this dish, which cooks with enough liquid to finish meloso, or a little soupy. 

The best liquid for cooking the rice is caldo de puchero—the strained soup made with chicken, beef and ham bone. If not available use ham stock plus chicken stock. Have the chicken stock hot when ready to add to the rice. If the ham and chicken stock are well-flavored, the rice will probably not need additional salt. 

Use a paella pan, perol (deep, two-handled frying pan), cazuela, flat-bottomed wok or skillet to cook the rice. I used a cast-iron skillet. 

Cut fresh pork in large chunks and brown them first.

Serves 2-3.

8-10 ounces boneless ibérico pork

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

2 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 cup chopped onions

¼ cup chopped carrot

2 tablespoons Sherry

2 cloves garlic

1/3 cup chopped green pepper

1 teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

½ cup crushed tomatoes

1 cup ham stock

½ teaspoon miso (optional)

1 cup medium-short-grained rice

3 cups hot chicken stock

Salt, as needed

Sprigs rosemary

6 asparagus stalks (optional)

1 ounce slivered ibérico ham

Browned pork and mushrooms.

Trim off excess fat from the meat. Dice the fat. Cut the meat into 1 ½-inch chunks Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan. Add diced pork fat and cook on medium heat until the fat is rendered out, 2 minutes. Add the chunks of meat and brown them slowly on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Skim out the meat and reserve. Add the mushrooms to the pan with 1 tablespoon more of oil. Fry the mushrooms until browned and skim them out.

Keep the heat on medium. Add the onions and carrot to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown, 5 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of the Sherry and cook until liquid evaporates. Add remaining Sherry and cook it off. Add the garlic and green pepper and continue sautéing the mixture until peppers are softened, 3 minutes. 

Stir in the pimentón. Immediately add the tomatoes. Cook them 5 minutes until tomatoes are thickened and beginning to brown. Add the contents of the skillet to a blender with the miso, if using, and the ham stock. Blend to make a smooth puree.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan and add the mixture from the blender. Stir in the rice. Add the hot chicken stock, saving ½ cup to be added at the end of the cooking time. Taste the liquid and add salt if necessary. Add the fried mushrooms. Add a sprig of rosemary. Add the asparagus, if using. Stir to combine. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce heat slightly so that the rice bubbles. Cook, uncovered, 10 minutes. 

Use a wooden paddle to stir gently. Lower heat and cook the rice 5 minutes more. Add remaining ½ cup of the chicken stock. Do not stir. Place the chunks of meat in the rice. Cook 3 minutes more or until the rice is cooked al dente. 

Discard cooked rosemary. Scatter the slivers of ham on top of the rice and tent the pan with foil. Allow to set 10 minutes. Serve the rice in the same pan in which it cooked with a fresh sprig of rosemary on top. 

After browning, the ibérico pork is cooked medium-rare and still juicy. Return it to the pan after the rice is cooked.

If you're starting from scratch, here is the authentic recipe for Andalusian puchero, incorporating chicken, beef and ham bones, chickpeas and vegetables.

Chicken-Ham Soup with Vegetables (Puchero).

THE CUPBOARD IS ALMOST BARE

Cazuela de fideos--noodles cooked with seafood in the Málaga style. This version is with sea scallops.

By the end of the second week of lockdown, it’s definitely time for another run on the supermercado! The cupboard is almost bare. We’re down to bare bones. But, I’m not scraping the bottom of the barrel. In a reverse operation, I’m using my stash of foods kept just for special occasions. This is certainly a "special occasion," if not the sort I originally had in mind.

I’ve defrosted a bag of plump sea scallops, a shellfish I adore. I used to buy them fresh, but they seem to have disappeared from local markets. I occasionally splurge on frozen ones.

I’ve also discovered in the freezer two small containers of shrimp broth (made from the heads and tails of fresh shrimp) and a bag of baby fava beans. Favas are in season now, but I´m not growing them this year. These are left from a previous year. In the cupboard, a packet of fideos, thin soup noodles, and some canned tomatoes.

My ingredients suggest a cazuela de fideos, a Málaga-style seafood and noodle casserole. Instead of the traditional version, with clams or bacalao (salt cod), this one, with scallops, will be special.

Noodles and sauce cook together. They are served juicy, not soupy.

A sprig of fresh mint is the finishing touch. My version has baby fava beans and, instead of peas, a garnish of snow peas from my garden. (So nice to have fresh vegetables, even when shopping is circumscribed.)

Plump scallops come with the coral or roe.

The fideo noodles cook right in the liquid (flavorful stock). A sofrito of onions, garlic and tomatoes fried in olive oil makes the flavor base. (The sofrito can be made in advance.) Cook the noodles in a clay cazuela if you have one or use any heavy pan.The finished noodles should be juicy, saucy, not soupy. A sprig of fresh mint is the typical garnish, making the dish truly “Málaga style.”

Potato is typical in this dish, yes, with pasta. Also typical are peas, fava beans, artichokes. I scattered the tiny (defrosted and peeled) favas on top of the fideos, like a garnish. Fresh ones can be cooked with the noodles. I also considered pureeing them with mayonnaise and garlic to make a green-tinged alioli to serve alongside.

Scallop and Noodle Casserole
Cazuela de Fideos con Vieiras

1 medium potato, cut in ½-inch dice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sea scallops (3-4 per person)
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ teaspoon saffron threads, lightly crushed
8 ounces (about 2 cups) fideo noodles or spaghetti broken into short lengths
¼ cup thick sofrito (recipe follows)
3 cups shrimp, fish or clam broth
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cooked fava beans or peas
Snow peas, blanched
Sprigs of fresh mint

Fideo noodles come in various sizes, from thin angel's hair to thicker. This medium noodle is perfect for the cazuela and also for soups. Use spaghetti broken into short lengths, if fideos are not available.

These are thawed baby fava beans. Blanching splits the outer skins, making them fairly easy to peel. The skinned beans are vivid green, a nice contrast with noodles.

Par-boil the diced potatoes for 2 minutes. Drain and reserve them.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or heavy pan. Sauté the scallops with the clove of garlic on medium heat, turning to brown them lightly on all sides. They should be just cooked through. Remove the scallops from the pan. (Leave the garlic in the pan.)

Add fideos to the oil in the cazuela, then add the sofrito and broth. The pasta cooks in the sauce.

Sprinkle the saffron into the oil in the pan. Stir in the fideos and potatoes and sauté for 1 minute. Add the sofrito and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat so liquid bubbles gently. Season with salt and pepper. (If broth and sofrito were salted, additional salt may not be needed.) Cook, stirring occasionally, until fideos are al dente and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 6 minutes.

Place the sautéed scallops and fava beans on top of the fideos. Cover the pan and allow to set 5 minutes.

Serve the fideos and scallops garnished with snow peas and sprigs of mint.

Thick Sofrito with Canned Tomatoes
Sofrito con Tomates en Conserva

Sofrito usually is made with fresh tomatoes. Here's a recipe for making it with canned tomatoes. You only need half of this thick sofrito paste for the fideos recipe. Store the rest in the fridge for use in another recipe. 

Makes ½ cup thick sauce.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
¼ cup chopped green pepper (optional)
1 cup drained and crushed canned tomatoes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dry Sherry

Fry the onions and tomatoes until all liquid is cooked away.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Sauté the onion, garlic and green pepper on medium heat until softened, 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook on medium-high until all of the liquid is cooked off and the vegetables begin to “fry” again in the oil.

Add the Sherry, raise the heat and cook off all the liquid. Let the mixture just begin to brown. Remove from heat.

Puree the sauce in a mini-processor.

More recipes with scallops:

Galician Style Scallops.

Almond Soup with Scallops.

More recipes for fideo noodles:

Seafood Pasta Paella (Fideuá).

Fideo Noodles with Tofu.

Shrimp and Fideo Noodle Salad.

Soup with Fideo Noodles (Cocido).

More about sofrito here.

NOODLE SALAD IS SO COOL!

I love Asian cold noodle salads—gingery, chile-flecked tofu with rice noodles or fish in peanut-coconut milk sauce and udon (wheat) noodles. They seem to cut through hot-weather stickiness.

While forking (or chopsticking) a cool noodle salad, I thought, why not try a Spanish-style noodle salad? Thus was invented cold Ensalada de Fideuá con Gambas—noodle-shrimp salad.

Big bowl of fideo noodle salad, with shrimp, squid (and a few mussels--I ate most of them the minute they were steamed).

Fideuá, or fideos, are vermicelli noodles. They come in various thicknesses, from fine angel’s hair to  those about the same thickness as spaghetti. They may be long strands, bundled into “nests,” or more usually, cut into short lengths, ready for adding to a pot of noodle soup. One variety has a pinhole through the pasta. They are perfect for making fideuá, a pasta-paella well-known in Catalonia and Valencia regions. That’s the inspiration for this salad. If you can’t get real fideos, use spaghetti broken into short lengths.

The Spanish technique for cooking pasta is to fry it first, then add sofrito and flavorful stock to finish the cooking.  That’s pretty much how I made the noodles for the salad, only, instead of making a sofrito, I added raw tomatoes and chopped peppers to the cooked noodles.

The shrimp stock is essential for flavoring the pasta. If you can’t get shrimp with heads and shells, try substituting other crustacean shells—lobster or crab, for example. Otherwise, use fish stock or clam broth. The recipe for shrimp stock (below) makes more than you need for the noodle salad, so, once cooled, freeze the remainder for another use (or, the next pasta salad).

The salad can be prepared in several easy stages—first the stock, then the cooking of shrimp and squid and, finally, finishing the salad.

Noodles cooked in shrimp stock are packed with flavor. 

Serve the noodle salad as a starter or main.

Garnish with olives and cherry tomatoes.

Shrimp and Fideo Noodle Salad
Ensalada de Fideuá con Gambas

Serves 4.

For the shrimp stock:

1 ½ pounds raw shrimp with heads and shells
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika), not smoked
1 cayenne chile (optional)
8 cups water
1 slice lemon
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
Bay leaf
Parsley stems

Shell the shrimp, reserving the bodies, refrigerated, for the salad. Heat the oil in a soup pot and add the heads and shells. Fry them 4 minutes. Lightly crush the garlic and add it, unpeeled to the pot. Stir in the pimentón and chile and immediately add the water. Add lemon slice, salt, vinegar, bay and parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook, partially covered, 20 minutes.

Let stock cool 5 minutes, then pour it through a strainer. Discard shrimp shells, chile, bay and parsley. Reserve the stock for cooking the fideo noodles

For the fideo noodle salad:

Water or shrimp stock
Ice
12 ounces peeled raw shrimp
1 medium squid, cleaned and body cut in rings
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups (1 pound) fideo noodles (not fine angel’s hair)
¼ cup finely chopped onions
Pinch of crushed saffron, optional
4 cups shrimp stock
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¼ cup brine from canned olives (optional)
Salt
½ cup grated raw tomato pulp
1 cup chopped green and red pepper
Pitted or stuffed olives, sliced, to garnish
Cherry tomatoes, to garnish
Sliced lemon, to serve
Salad greens, as desired

Bring a small pan of salted water or stock to a boil. (Use enough to just cover the shrimp.) Have ready a bowl of ice water. Add the shrimp to the boiling water and cook them until they turn pink and curl slightly, 2 to 4 minutes. Drain the shrimp and plunge them into the ice water.

Add the pieces of squid to the boiling water just until they turn opaque, 20 seconds. Drain and add them to the ice water. Drain the shrimp and squid and refrigerate them, covered, until ready to incorporate in the noodle salad.

Toast the noodles with a little olive oil until golden-brown.

In a deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the fideo noodles and chopped onion and toast them, stirring, until the noodles begin to turn golden, about 4 minutes. Add the saffron, if using. Add 3 cups of the shrimp stock and cook the noodles on a medium-high heat until they begin to stick, 5 minutes.

Add remaining 1 cup of stock, lower the heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until noodles are al dente, about 5 minutes more. Remove the skillet from the heat. Noodles will still be juicy, but not soupy. Cover and let them set 10 minutes.

Transfer the noodles to a bowl. Add lemon juice and olive brine, if using. Season with salt to taste. Stir in the tomato pulp. Add the chopped peppers and olives. (Save a few olives to garnish the salad.)

Immediately before serving, add the shrimp and squid to the noodles. Garnish the salad with olives, cherry tomatoes and sliced lemon. Serve with salad greens, if desired.

A recipe for fideuá is here.