Fideus a la Cassola

Fideus a la cassola are Catalan, a cassola of short thick noodles stewed with pork rib and botifarra until the broth clings but still asks for a spoon. This is not Valencian fideuà, which cooks dry and flat, and it is not paella with noodles. It belongs to the earthenware casserole, to the sofregit, the slow onion and tomato base, and to the picada that tightens the sauce at the end.

The method that decides it is the sofregit. Cook the onion low until dark gold and sweet, then let the grated tomato lose its water and turn thick enough that the oil shows at the edge. Rush that part and the whole cassola tastes thin, however good the pork is. Do it patiently and the noodles drink in a broth that already has a floor under it.

If you can get botifarra crua, the fresh Catalan pork sausage, use it. If not, choose a plain fresh pork sausage with garlic and pepper, not smoked sausage and not chorizo; the dish will taste a little less of Catalonia, but it will still behave correctly. Thick fideos are best, number 4 or fideus gruixuts. Short macaroni works if that is what your shop has, though it needs a few extra minutes and a splash more broth. No hace falta haber pisado España.

Finish with the picada, garlic, parsley, toasted almond, and saffron pounded together, and give the cazuela five quiet minutes before serving. The noodles settle, the sauce turns glossy, and the spoon finds its way through meat, pasta, and broth without fuss. In the Margin beside this one I wrote only: "no lo seques," don't dry it out. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.