For me, paella - the first of this week's three recipes made from one shopping list - has always had connotations of luxury and celebration. I think of wide dishes overflowing with saffron-stained plump rice, with juicy langoustines and fat mussels, strips of squid and tender pieces of chicken.

It was only when I was exploring Spanish local food for my TV series A Cook's Tour of Spain that I learnt about the down-to-earth peasant roots of Spain's most famous dish. Paella evolved in the historically poor region of southeast Spain around Valencia. Long before, Moorish invaders had brought with them a few varieties of short-grained rice from Asia, which they grew in low-lying fields around the town of Valencia.

The Valencia countryside is fertile and humid and the large lake and area of marshland called the Albufera lagoon is perfect for the cultivation of rice. This is a national park today, but still one of Europe's most famous rice-growing regions. The crop was to become an important foodstuff in the southern Spanish diet and this was reflected in local recipes. Paella, however, stands apart from other rice dishes. And its traditional place at the weekend as the main midday meal to feed the entire family - sometimes friends and neighbours too - makes it a suitable candidate for an Easter weekend feast.

In poorer times, food during the week was mainly dishes of potatoes or beans, bread and whatever other vegetables or scraps of meat were available. Paella, in contrast, was a dish where every ingredient to be found was added to create a huge, generous plate of food. Snails could be foraged during the week and purged ahead of the weekend to provide free protein; rabbits were shot; on special occasions a family chicken might be slaughtered; locally grown vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and peas were picked and, for high days and holidays, a pinch of saffron was added (though more often the cheaper yellow turmeric was used).

It was cooked outside, over a wood-burning stove, usually by the men of the house, in a wide-bottom dish with two handles. Today paella is defined by three characteristics: that it is made outside on a wood-burning fire, which gives it its lovely smoky taste; that it is eaten at lunchtime; and that it is always cooked in a paella pan.

All that, though, is for the purist. If you can get your hands on a dish large enough to feed the family at Easter, it won't matter whether you cook it outside or in. It is much less work than cooking a risotto because you don't have to spend ages standing and stirring at the stove, but the result is deliciously complex, full of intangible scents and rich flavours.

Make sure you keep every leftover bone and shell from people's cleaned plates. Throwing away those scraps is like throwing away little parcels of taste that you can use to transform this week's other two recipes.

N.B. Scottish langoustines are fished 100 per cent sustainably, are not too expensive and are delicious. The majority are exported to Spain as we tend not to like fiddling with the shells, while Spaniards are far more concerned with the taste. Order them online or from a good fishmonger and treat yourself.

A Cook's Tour of Spain, Channel 4, on Thursday and April 3, 8pm

Shopping list for three meals

1 large free-range chicken

12 Scottish langoustines

450g mussels, de-bearded

2kg mixed white fish

12 baby artichokes, or if you cannot get these use artichokes in jars

5 heads fennel

1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow pepper

4 tomatoes, a small bunch of thyme

1 mango, 1 fresh red chilli

1 tin coconut milk

Ricotta cheese

If you don't have them already

Dry sherry - manzanilla or fino

1 bottle good-quality vinegar

A small box of saffron

2 heads of garlic

2 lemons and 2 limes

4 onions and 1 bag shallots

½ bunch of thyme and coriander

800g floury potatoes

Star buy

Fresh ginger

Store cupboard buys

1 packet fish stock and

1 packet chicken stock cubes Spanish paella rice such as Bomba, or another short-grained variety Hot curry paste

1 bottle Pernod

Recipe 1: Easter paella

Prep time: 35 min; cooking time: 40 min. Serves 8-10

First prepare the artichokes. Pour some vinegar and the juice of a lemon into a bowl of water. Pull away the outer leaves of the artichokes and trim off the base stalks. Cut off an inch of the leaves from the top. Cut each choke in half lengthways and rub liberally with another cut lemon. Put into the water to stop any discolouring.

Infuse a generous pinch of saffron (about 20 strands) in a small cup of hot water.

With a jointing knife or meat scissors, chop up the chicken into small pieces, bones and all. Season the pieces with salt and pepper. Pour 3 tbsp of olive oil into a paella pan or wide-based frying pan and brown the chicken pieces on all sides. Remove and set aside.

Add a little more oil to the pan and add 2 chopped onions and a handful of chopped fresh thyme. Sweat for 5 minutes before adding 2 heads of fennel chopped in 2in (5cm) chunks, then add the peppers cut into similar sized pieces and the artichokes. Sautée for 5-10 minutes or until the vegetables are just starting to caramelise.

Add another dash of oil and 4 tomatoes, cut into eighths and 6 cloves of chopped garlic. Cook for a minute or two before adding 500g of the rice. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes to coat with the oil. Now pour in the saffron water, 150ml of dry sherry and a litre of chicken stock. Add the chicken pieces, the langoustine and the mussels and simmer briskly for 20-25 minutes until the rice is plumped up and the chicken and shellfish are cooked.

Top up with more stock if you need to. Turn off the heat, cover and let rest for 10 minutes to let the rice finish cooking in its steam. Serve at the table with forks for everyone to help themselves. Traditionally each person eats the part in front of them. The perfect paella has a light crust on the bottom of the pan, which is the best bit, so make sure everyone gets some. Serve with a fresh, green salad.

Recipe 2: fish curry (serves 6)

Use the discarded langoustine shells from the paella above. Fry them together for 5 minutes with 3 whole cloves of garlic, 2 chopped shallots, the flesh of a mango, the stems of a small bunch of coriander and a fresh red chilli in 2 tbsp of oil. Blitz the whole lot in a food processor with enough water added to keep it liquid and then press through a sieve.

Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and fry an onion, 3 cloves of garlic and 1in minced ginger for a few minutes. Add 3 tbsp of hot curry paste. Fry for a few minutes, then add half a tin of coconut milk, the sieved langoustine sauce from above, a litre of fish stock and a good pinch of salt. Add 500g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks, and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding a pinch of paprika if you like it hot. Slide the fish, cut into bite-size chunks, into the soup and simmer for five minutes. Serve with wedges of lime to squeeze over, some chopped coriander and bread to mop up the juices.

Recipe 3: fennel soup with ricotta crostini (serves 6)

Make a simple chicken stock by covering the leftover chicken bones from the paella with water and simmer for an hour with a chopped onion, a carrot and a stick or two of celery, together with a little thyme and a few black peppercorns.

Then chop and sweat 2 shallots, 3 heads of fennel (cutting off any tough old outer layers and reserving the feathery green fronds for the garnish) and 8 garlic cloves in 3 tbsp of olive oil until transparent. Add 200g peeled, diced potatoes and sweat until the potatoes turn transparent. Add a good splash of Pernod, then season well with salt and pepper, cover in 1.2 litres of the stock and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Blend to a fine purée. Drizzle slices of baguette with extra-virgin olive oil and toast in a 200C oven until golden (about 5-10 minutes). Rub with the cut side of a garlic clove and spread with the ricotta cheese.

Serve the soup scattered with the reserved fronds of the fennel bulbs and the ricotta toasts.

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