History

The tourist office lists rice with fresh anchovies and spinach among the recipes Benidorm families have passed down for generations, and the version it publishes comes from Una Cuina de Tots, a cookbook from the Associació de Festes Sant Antoni. It joins two things the town had to hand, inshore fish and huerta greens, and is cooked in a caldero and usually served caldoso. Food writers name it as the dish to look for in Benidorm, and El Barranco keeps it on its rice list on Poniente beach.

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Common allergens: Fish

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 30 minTotal 50 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 250g round rice
  • 750g fresh anchovies, cleaned and filleted
  • 250g spinach, washed
  • 2 dried ñora peppers, seeded
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • A handful of parsley
  • 1 ripe tomato
  • A pinch of saffron
  • 1 litre fish stock or water
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Method

  1. Heat a little olive oil in a caldero or heavy pot and fry the ñoras for a minute without letting them burn; lift them into a mortar.
  2. Pound the ñoras with the garlic, parsley, tomato, saffron and a pinch of salt to a rough picada.
  3. Wilt the spinach in the same oil, stir in the picada, then add the rice and stir for a minute so it takes the oil.
  4. Pour in the hot stock, bring to the boil and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes.
  5. Halfway through, lay the anchovies on top and push them under the liquid.
  6. When the rice is tender and still a little soupy, take the pot off the heat and serve at once.

Tip from the editors. Keep it loose: this is a caldoso rice, so add a ladle of hot stock near the end if it starts to dry out.

Where to eat arroz con boquerones y espinacas

Arroz con boquerones y espinacas in Benidorm

El Barranco ★ 4.2

€€€ ValencianPoniente

El Barranco is a seafront rice and fish house on Poniente beach in Benidorm, cooking arroz a banda, arroz del senyoret and rice with anchovies and spinach.

OrderArroz con boquerones y espinacas, Benidorm's own rice, for at least two.

TipRice dishes are made for at least two; a local quoted by Guía Repsol picks the salt-baked fish and the grilled baby squid.

Directions

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