Spring Vegetable Paella

Category: Dinner Ideas

The mushrooms, asparagus, spinach and peas in this paella make it especially appropriate for a spring dinner party.

ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

  • 8 ounces uncooked sausage links (pork, chicken, rabbit, or duck)

  • 1 medium-size (9-ounce) yellow onion, finely chopped (1 cup)

  • 4 ounces fresh cremini mushrooms (about 6 mushrooms), quartered

  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt

  • 4 anchovy fillets packed in oil (from 1 [2-ounce] can), drained

  • 4 teaspoons garlic cloves, minced (4 teaspoons)

  • 2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice (such as Spanish bomba or Italian arborio)

  • 4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock

  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped preserved lemon

  • 8 ounces fresh pencil-thin asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces (1 1/4 cups)

  • 1 cup chopped fresh spinach (1 ounce)

  • 1 cup frozen or fresh sweet peas

  • 1/2 cup chopped radicchio (from 1 small radicchio)

  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

demo

Direction

Gather all ingredients.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 12-inch oven-safe skillet over medium. Add sausage; cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove sausage from skillet, and let cool 5 minutes. Cut into bite-sized pieces, and set aside. Do not wipe skillet clean.

Add onion, mushrooms, and salt to skillet; cook over medium, stirring often, until onion is translucent and mushrooms are soft, about 4 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, push onion and mushrooms to skillet edges; add 1 tablespoon of the oil to center of skillet. Add anchovies and garlic to center of skillet; cook, stirring and smashing anchovies into pieces using a wooden spoon, until garlic is fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir garlic-anchovy mixture into onion-mushroom mixture. Push mixture back to skillet edges; add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to center of skillet. Add rice to center of skillet; stir to coat in oil.

Stir stock and preserved lemon into mixture in skillet. Stir in reserved sausage. Bring to a simmer over medium. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, uncovered and undisturbed, until rice is almost tender and liquid is almost fully absorbed, about 18 minutes.

Stir in asparagus, spinach, and peas. Transfer skillet to preheated oven. Bake until rice and vegetables are tender, 12 to 14 minutes.

Carefully remove skillet from oven, and return to stovetop. Cook over medium-high, undisturbed, until a soccarat (crust) forms on bottom of paella, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in radicchio, making sure to not break up the soccarat on the bottom of the paella. Top with parsley and serve.