Our paella: the story of a family recipe

There is a question we get at least once every evening: "How did a paella end up in Mulazzo?" It is a good question, because the answer is not in a cookbook. It is in a suitcase that left Galicia almost fifty years ago.

This is the story of our paella: where it comes from, how we cook it, why it takes its time, and why after three generations it is still the dish that says more about us than any other.

A recipe that arrived in a suitcase

Antonio Novoa was born and raised in Galicia, in the north west of Spain. When he opened El Caracol in Mulazzo in 1977, the suitcase held more than clothes: it held the recipes of his home. Octopus, zarzuela, sangria, and paella.

He did not bring it because it was fashionable. He brought it because it was what he knew how to do, what was cooked at his house on the days when it was worth staying at the table for hours. And that paella, cooked in a medieval village in the Tuscan Apennines, did something nobody had expected: people loved it. First the families of Mulazzo, then everyone driving up from La Spezia, from Parma, from the coast.

Beside Antonio there was Elsa Giannardi, born in Mulazzo: hers is the other half of our table, the Lunigianese half, with testaroli, torta d'erbi (the local herb pie) and the flavours of this valley. The paella at El Caracol was born like that, in a kitchen where Spain and Lunigiana talked to each other every day. If you want the full story of how it all started, we have told it in From Galicia to Lunigiana.

How we cook it

Our paella starts when you order it. There is no tray sitting ready and waiting: there is rice cooking in its own stock together with king prawns, squid, calamari, mussels and clams, with green beans, peas and peppers. It takes as long as it takes, and that is fine by us.

The wait is part of the dish. It is the time for a starter shared between two, for a glass of vermentino or a sangria, for a conversation with the people at your table. When the pan arrives, it arrives for everybody: the paella is made for two people minimum and it goes in the middle of the table. It is a dish you live together. That is how it was done at Antonio's house, and we have not changed our minds since.

The three versions

The menu has three versions of our paella, all cooked to order and for two people minimum. Prices are per person:

The Valenciana is the one people ask for most, and it is the one that has defined El Caracol for almost fifty years. The Mista is for anyone who does not want to choose between sea and land. The Mulata, dark and intense, is the surprising one: people who try it once often do not go back.

Prices and ingredients are always up to date on the online menu, allergens included.

Naturally gluten free

Something plenty of guests discover with relief: rice contains no gluten, and neither does our paella. It is not an adapted version, it is simply the dish as it is. It does contain shellfish, molluscs and fish, so if you have allergies please tell us when you book and the kitchen will organise itself accordingly.

From Antonio to Gianmarco

Family recipes have one weak point: somebody has to keep making them. Here that somebody is Gianmarco, Antonio's son, who runs the kitchen today together with his wife Federica.

The ones who carry it to the table are Gianluca, Alessandro and Gioele, the sons of Gianmarco and Federica. Third generation, same passion. When we set the pan down in the middle of the table and somebody goes "ooh", the dish has already said everything it had to say, and that little moment of wonder is something we are grateful for every time.

What our guests say

It is not us saying it: more than 60% of our Google reviews mention the paella by name. A couple of voices, exactly as they wrote them:

"We came for the paella: outstanding, worth an hour's drive." Alessandro F.

"We drove all the way from Milan to try their paella and I have to say it really is good, and generous." Stefano S.

In 2026 Italian national television came up here too: Studio Aperto MAG on Italia 1 ran a feature on El Caracol and its paella, telling the story of this corner of Spain in Lunigiana. The video is on the page dedicated to our paella, together with the FAQ and everything worth knowing before you come.

Come and taste it

You can only tell so much of a paella: at some point you have to sit down. We are in Mulazzo, 35 minutes from La Spezia, with free parking and a terrace over the village. At weekends it is worth booking. The paella, as always, is on us.

Discover our paella → · See the menu → · How to find us →