Chef Mario Batali's Culinary Road Trip

To bring the Spanish flavor back home, Mario and Gwyneth are sharing a few dishes from their cookbook Spain...A Culinary Road Trip, which contains all the recipes they fell in love with while on the road.

"We're making paella, which is probably the most famous dish in all of Spain," Mario says. "In each different region, there are different kinds of paella. I like to think of it as kind of a canvas on which you can paint." Although paella is traditionally thought of as a seafood dish, Mario says you can put whatever you want in it—chicken, rabbit, chorizo—or make it completely vegetarian.

Get the full recipe for Mario's paella.

The first step to perfect paella, according to Mario, is to use a paella pan. If you don't have one, he says a sauté pan will suffice. "You're just one step further from excellent paella," he says.