This classic Spanish tortilla or tortilla de patatas should not be confused with tortillas from Mexico. Whereas Spanish tortillas contain mainly eggs and potatoes, Mexican consist of cornflour. You will find Spanish tortilla everywhere, each café or pub offers some, I believe it is something like the secret national dish. There are many variations out there, some are made with onions, others prefer without and you can fill them and include add-ons. I am going to introduce the classic version here including onions. This means five ingredients: potatoes, eggs, onions, olive oil, and salt. If you don’t count the salt, it is just four ingredients.
The family of my husband lives in the north of Spain in the wine region La Rioja. Many of my relatives work in hotels and restaurants, this also holds true for my sister-in-law. She had to make tortilla day in and day out when she worked in a hotel with a restaurant for many years. So she can be considered a pro. Which is why I asked her to teach me. She made one and I took notes and tried to understand what was important. She made it look so easy. I guess practice makes perfect. So once we returned to Germany, I started making tortilla and have to say, wow, this was much harder than I thought. I can only say that the first try was finally to my liking and all her tips and tricks paid off. This is also the one you see pictured here. My personal recommendation is to really pick the right frying pan, this will make all the difference. I did mine with one of 24cm in diameter. If you want to practice, I would recommend halving the recipe and start small. From the regular sized tortilla I would estimate that about 4 people could eat from it as a main meal.
This is a classic Spanish tortilla with potatoes and also onion. In this video you can see how I make it. First peel and cube the potatoes and onion. Place them either in a frying pan or a pot and almost cover with olive oil. Simmer at low temperature, you don't want to fry the potatoes, they shouldn't turn brown, but you want them to get soft, just like when boiling in water. It usually takes between 15-20min. I usually start on medium heat and lower the heat to low after only a few minutes. Stir occasionally. Drain and keep the olive oil. Tip: you can prepare this part a few days in advance. Be sure to chill covered and make sure the mix has room temperature before continuing (e.g. heat briefly in microwave). Whisk the eggs with three large pinches of salt, and if you like some pepper, in a large bowl. Add the potatoe mixture and coombine. Place some of the saved olive oil in a non-stick frying pan. Mine was 24cm in diameter. You want to heat the oil until it steams, it should be really hot. Pour in the mixture into the frying pan and stir the center so that it doesn't get stuck with a wooden spoon. Only lower the temperature after 30 seconds. The idea is that you get create firm edges of the tortilla with this procedure. Lower the heat to medium and let sit without stirring for about 4 minutes. Now comes the most challenging part, you will need to turn the tortilla. Use a large plate and gloves, places the plate on top of the frying pan, flip around and move the tortilla back into the frying pan to brown the second side. The second side needs a bit less, around 3-4 minutes, depending on how creamy you want your tortilla to be. If you want it to be firm, it just fry between 5-6 minutes (same holds true for the first side). It will firm up a bit more once cool. Tortilla tastes best on the day made and keeps for a few days if chilled.Spanish Tortilla
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