Serves 4
Paella traditionally takes a long time to prepare, but this version goes fairly rapidly when you have tomato sauce and garlic puree on hand.
I call it Greek because it features the flavors of the cuisine, as well as orzo, a quick-cooking Greek pasta, rather than the traditional rice as the base. If you want to skip the merguez, add a tablespoon of either Spicy Red Rub (here) or chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to the pan just as the sliced garlic begins to brown.
3 tablespoons canola oil
½ cup chopped merguez sausage
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
28 mussels, scrubbed and debearded, any cracked or open mussels discarded
20 littleneck clams, scrubbed, any cracked or open clams discarded
1 cup Tomato Sauce (here), pureed
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
2 cups cooked orzo
8 large shrimp (15/20 per pound), peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons Garlic Puree (here)
¼ cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (parsley, mint, dill)
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Heat the canola oil and sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the sausage is lightly browned and its spices visibly infuse themselves into the oil. Add the sliced garlic and sauté until golden. Add the mussels and clams and toss to distribute throughout the pan. Add the tomato sauce and ½ cup water and season with salt and pepper. Add the orzo and stir to incorporate.
When the clams and mussels begin to open, add the shrimp and rotate them in the pan so that they are at the bottom, close to the heat. Add the garlic puree and herbs and stir to incorporate. Check the shrimp for doneness—they should be opaque just through to the center. Discard any shellfish that have not opened. Drizzle some olive oil over and toss with a spoon. Transfer the paella to a rimmed platter and serve warm.