Spanish tortilla

Ingredients

• Potatoes — sliced thin600 g
• Onion — thinly sliced1
• Eggs6
• Olive oil — nearly all of it goes back in the bottle400 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Heat the oil in a deep pan until it is warm rather than hot — a slice of potato dropped in should sigh, not crackle. Add the potato and onion and salt them.

   3 min

2. 2

   Poach for twenty minutes, turning gently now and then. It is ready when a slice breaks easily against the side of the pan. Drain through a colander, keeping the potato.

   20 min

3. 3

   Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and fold the warm potato through them. Let it sit for ten minutes: the potato gives up starch and the tortilla holds together for it.

   10 min

4. 4

   In a 24 cm pan with a spoon of oil, pour the mixture in and cook over medium heat for four minutes, easing the edges towards the middle with a spatula.

   4 min

5. 5

   Cover with a plate, flip in one movement and slide it back raw side down. Three minutes more leaves the centre slightly loose, which is how it should be.

   3 min

About the dish

Spaniards argue about tortilla on two points: with onion or without, and runny in the middle or set through. The first is unresolved and the second is taste, but both sides agree on the essential thing: the potato must never be fried crisp.

The potato is poached in oil over a low flame. This is not frying: the temperature stays low, and the pieces should turn soft enough to break under a fork rather than crunch. The oil is drained afterwards and used again.

The flip is the only hard part. The plate has to be wider than the pan and the movement single and decisive; hesitation gives you an omelette both in the pan and on the floor.

Worth knowing

• — Do not skimp on the oil: the potato has to be covered. Almost all of it comes back afterwards, and better than it went in.
• — Tortilla is better warm than hot, and better the next day than on the first. In Spain it is eaten at room temperature.
• — If the flip frightens you, finish the top under a grill for two minutes. The texture differs slightly, but the dish survives intact.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

430 kcal

Protein

15 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

30 g

More from Spain

• Paella valenciana — Rice in a wide pan with chicken, rabbit and beans. It is never stirred once, and the crust on the bottom depends on that.