This meaty fideuà, made with a fatter fideu pasta (sometimes called perla) and rich with hearty stock and tasty meats, is more of an inland dish, which I often enjoyed when I lived in Vic in Catalonia. Our head chef, Leo, whose family is from an inland village near Manresa, put this version on the menu in our South Kensington tapas bar and restaurant, and it is especially popular in the winter. I like it with savoy cabbage. Vi ranci is a traditional Catalan ingredient. Literally “rancid wine”, it is fortified wine made from white or red grapes that is allowed to oxidise as it ages. It can be drunk like a dessert wine if you dare, or used in cooking. It isn’t easy to find in the UK, so you can substitute a dry or amontillado sherry.

Serves 4
fideu 160g of no 3 grade (or perla)
Ibérico pork ribs 4, ask your butcher to cut them in half (or pork ribs)
plain flour for dusting
olive oil 2 tbsp
sausages 2 large, fat ones such as botifarra, or good-quality Toulouse sausages, cut into chunky pieces
garlic 2 cloves, finely sliced
small onions 2, finely chopped
ripe tomato 1, grated
sugar ½ tsp (optional)
vi ranci 50ml (or palo cortado or amontillado sherry)
caldo de pollo 750ml, hot (or chicken stock)

For the picada
blanched unsalted almonds 10g
blanched hazelnuts 10g, in their skins
saffron 8 threads
flat-leaf parsley 1 heaped tbsp, finely chopped

First toast the fideu. Put a 38cm paella pan on a low to medium heat, add the pasta and spread it out thinly, stirring and turning it for 3 minutes to stop it burning, until it turns golden brown. Put in a bowl and keep aside.

Dust the ribs with flour. Heat the oil in the paella pan. Fry the ribs until well browned, then remove from the pan. Put in the sausages and fry them until they colour. Lift out and set aside with the ribs.

Put the garlic into the pan, then add the onions and fry gently for a few minutes until softened but not coloured. Add the grated tomato and cook for 10 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Taste, and add the sugar if the tomatoes are too acidic.

Put the ribs and sausages back into the pan, add the vi ranci or sherry and cook for a minute before adding the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, in a circular motion around the edge of the pan until the level is just below the studs of the handles. Bring to the boil, then add the fideu and simmer for 10 minutes.

While the fideu is cooking, make the picada. Crush the nuts in a pestle and mortar. Heat a dry pan and briefly toast the saffron, then add it to the nuts with the parsley and grind to a paste.

Once the fideu is soft but still a little al dente, scatter the picada over the surface, stir in and cook gently for 2 minutes, until the stock has reduced and generously coats the ingredients.

To finish off, rotate the pan so any wobbly areas that are holding too much liquid around the edge can cook through too (paella pans are big, and the centre will always be hotter than the edges).

When a light crackling sound emerges from the pan it means the crusty base is just beginning to form and it is time to take it off the heat and cover it with a clean tea towel for 4 minutes. The trapped steam allows the top layer of pasta to steam and dry a little more, and the pasta will curl upwards, giving the dish its spiky look.

From Brindisa by Monika Linton (HarperCollins, £29.95)