Catalonia 1939, somewhere on the frontier with France: “Guapa, the Franco fascist brats are almost on top of us. What do we do now?” “Pierino, the cause is not lost, the Ramones have swum across the Ebro, and they’ve brought their baseball bats. They’re going to beat on the brats. Now let’s make paella and love before we die”. “Cara mia!” And they did, and it was good. This is our “go to” paella recipe. It combines bomba rice, saffron for color and taste, chorizo, peppers and vegetable and an assortment of your favorite mollusks and crustaceans---you decide based on what’s most fresh. Pierino likes to include the smallest clams he can find; manilas, cockles, tiny little golden ones. But diver scallops, spot prawns and even lobster are fine. Toss a rabbit in there if you would like, or as in this case chicken wings, as well as a can of helix snails if you can handle that. Many recipes call for paella to be cooked in the oven. In our opinion a paella should always be cooked on an outdoor grill or gas ring, and if that’s not possible on a cook top burner. The reason for this is that one of the essential dimensions is the “soccarat”, the slightly overcooked (burnt) bottom that you can’t achieve without a direct source of heat. And be generous with your saffron, guapa. It should finish looking like a big old, fat yellow sun. - pierino

Oct. 1, 2021, 11:50 a.m.

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