It’s not easy to pinpoint the exact date of birth of paella. In essence, the origin of paella in the Iberian peninsula can be traced to the appearance of its main ingredient, rice.

It is accepted that rice first made its appearance in Europe around 330 a.d., thanks to Charlemagne’s incursions in Asia, where rice was a commonly used and cultivated cereal. There are various thoughts as to the routes of rice before it first appeared in Hispania (as Spain was known during the Roman occupation). Rice could have come from Persia via Egypt between the IV and I centuries b.c. It could have then travelled through Greece to Spain with the Moorish occupation in the VIII century (Moors where the name given by western europeans to the Arabs and Berbers that, traveling north from Africa, invaded most of the Iberian peninsula). It could have also entered Spain directly from Persia in the VIII century, and from there to Sicily between the XIII and XVI centuries, the period when Sicily was part of the kingdom of Aragón, in the Iberian peninsula.

But no matter how rice made first its appearance in Spain, its cultivation didn’t start until the arrival of the Moors in the Iberian peninsula in the VIII century. Rice needs vast amounts of water and a certain climate to be cultivated in mass. During their occupation, when Spain was known as Al-Andalus, the Moors improved the irrigation systems brought in by the romans, allowing the cultivation of rice and increasing its production. The eastern coast of Spain provided the optimal conditions for it. It is also believed that the Moors brought saffron to the Iberian peninsula, and started its cultivation in the X century in the regions of Andalusia, Castille and Valencia. Two essential ingredients in the elaboration of paella were then present in the region of Valencia as early as the X century.

Paella is not referred to only as the dish, but also as the pan where the dish is cooked. Paella can therefore be considered as the marriage between the patella, a shallow pan used and brought into Spain by the Romans, and the rice and saffron introduced by the Moors.

By the time the Moors were expelled from Spain in the late XV century, followed by the moriscos (former muslims converted to christianity) in the XVI and XVII centuries, the region on the eastern coast of Spain was already knowledgeable in the cultivation of rice. Paella continued to proliferate amongst farmers and shepherds because of the ease in transporting it and adaptability to being cooked with whichever ingredients were at hand. Paella continued to proliferate in the region, expanding throughout the XVIII and XIX centuries to other areas of Spain and to every social class.

Paella experienced an expansion in the early XX century, where the dish travelled to Latin America (arroz con pollo can be considered a variant of paella) and the south of the United States (where jambalaya can be considered a variant of paella with provencal influences). However, it is the tourism explosion that Spain experienced in the 60’s that made the dish known worldwide.

Inevitably, with its increased popularity, paella has been suffering transformations that take it away from the original Valencian Paella, with variants that include seafood and other ingredients, next to, or instead of, the original chicken, duck, snails and/or rabbit that are used in the original, the ingredients that, together with rice and saffron, were easily found in the marshlands of Valencia.

Paella Valenciana

Like Cognac, Champagne or Roquefort in France, Parmigiano in Italy or Cava in Catalonia, Paella Valenciana is regulated by an institution that safeguards its authenticity; this institution is the Council of Agriculture of the Government of Valencia. This regulatory council establishes that paella valenciana has to include the following ten ingredients: chicken, rabbit, wide green beans (ferraura), wide white bean (garrofó), tomato, rice, olive oil, saffron, salt and water. Depending on the region, it admits other ingredients like garlic, artichoke, rosemary, duck, snails and pimentón (Spanish paprika). These variants will also be accepted within the denomination of paella valenciana. Any other ingredients will grant the dish a different name (like paella de mariscos, or seafood paella), and in many cases will make it a ‘rice dish’ and not a paella.

As we say in Spain, paella is a rice dish, but not all rice dishes are paellas.

 

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