Anyone interested in Spanish rice dishes, whether it is the world-famous Paella (named after the large pan in which it is prepared – ‘patella’) or Arroz (the Spanish word for rice, which comes from the Arabic – ‘ar-ruzz’), should know what Salmorreta is.
You can prepare Paella and Arroz without Salmorreta and we often do. It is by no means the case that such a dish is only authentic with Salmorreta. That is more a regional question.
The Spanish region of Valencia, where Paella comes from, has three provinces. From north to south, these are Castellón, Valencia and Alicante. In the south, in the province of Alicante, Salmorreta is more typical.
It requires olive oil, garlic, parsley, tomatoes and Ñora peppers, which are only found in Spain. We have already explained everything you need to know about this special product here.
It is possible to buy Ñora where we live, but we always bring a large supply with us from a visit to Spain. If you can’t get hold of Ñora, use mild chilli flakes as an alternative and grind them into powder in a mortar or spice grinder. Aleppo chilli, known as ‘’Pul Biber‘’ in Turkey, works quite well.
The tomatoes should of course be as flavoursome as possible, which is why tinned peeled tomatoes are used in most cases. The season for fresh tomatoes is very short. If you are using fresh tomatoes, cut them in half and grate them on the cut side until only the skin remains.
Place the olive oil in a small pan over a low or medium heat. Then slowly sauté the peeled and roughly chopped garlic cloves for about 4 minutes. They should start to become intensely fragrant, but not brown. Cut open the Ñora peppers and remove the stems and seeds, cut the rest into large pieces and sauté with the garlic for a further 3 minutes.
Too high a heat would be very harmful here, otherwise these ingredients would become extremely bitter.
Add rinsed parsley stalks in one piece, no need to chop. After a minute, add the tomatoes as the last ingredient.
Leave to simmer gently for a long time on a low heat (we: 3 out of 10). After about 45 minutes, most of the liquid will have evaporated.
Now puree everything into a paste using a hand blender and the Salmorreta is ready.
You wouldn’t do this at home to prepare a single Paella. We therefore make a larger quantity and freeze the Salmorreta in an ice cube mould for easy portioning.
Ingredients (for Salmorreta for 8 portions of Paella or Arroz):
40 ml best quality olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
4 Ñora peppers (alternatively: 1 teaspoon of mild chilli flakes – e.g. Aleppo chilli / Pul Biber – ground in a mortar or spice grinder)
½ handful of parsley
400 g tomato pulp (we recommend peeled tomatoes from the tin)
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