From Picnic Staple to Elegant Dinner Dish: Tortilla

I often think of making Spanish tortilla: its beautiful portability, its golden colour and the sizzling sound of frying potatoes transports me to Spain. But more importantly although a bit messy, it is a one pot-dish that everybody loves. Tortilla is iconic Spanish food and one of the few recipes all of my countrymen agree is truly national. But it is also divisive; the "con cebollistas" without onion and "sin cebollistas" with onion have a long standing culinary feud. As do the runny versus the dry camp. I am firmly in the "con cebollista" not runny side (not a fan of raw eggs!).

Tortilla is adaptable to every dining situation from the fancy dinner party to the "bocata" or sandwich that is often eaten hastily mid-morning on the counter of a local bar but it does take a bit of work.

Tortilla used to be the staple recipe of every mom, granny and aunt. Now it is often bought in the refrigerated section of the supermarket wrapped in plastic, all identical with no differentiating culinary personality. I admit ready-made are ok, especially in the height of Spanish summer when we can't bear to turn the stove on. Recently chefs have developed the tortilla in a tin, which needs no refrigeration, I have yet to try it.

I keep a non-stick pan reserved for making tortillas (that invariably gets used for other purposes). When you have seen enough tortillas and attended a tortilla contest or two you can almost recognise a person's traits in their tortilla, if they strive for a perfect shape (engineer), if the tortilla is speckled golden brown (learnt cooking from their mother), if the tortilla is ghost colored (too careful), if the tortilla is not flipped (lazy).

To flip the beauty that is tortilla de patatas, don't fret about getting an ugly plastic tortilla flipper that many Spanish people have hidden in their kitchen cupboard. A plate will not do unless you work as a circus juggler! And although the fancy ceramic one might look tempting it often ends up broken into pieces along with your tortilla on the floor. I admit the shards of pretty broken ceramic can make the nerve-wracking scene more cinematic as if you are the star of an Almódovar film.

Make tortilla with this basic recipe and remember Spanish egg yolks are more yellow than in other countries. The hue you see in bars is hard to replicate but if colour is important to you and you have money to spare infuse the eggs with powdered saffron or replace two eggs with four yolks.

If you are into "cheffy" tortillas, Martín Berasategui adds a green pepper and a minced onion to this basic mixture whereas Luis Andoni Aduriz makes his omelette with 6 eggs, 1 green pepper, 1 tender onion, 100 grs diced unsalted cod and 5 egg yolks. After all the Nueva Cocina Vasca (New Basque Cuisine) of the 70's was obsessed with green peppers.

"Tortilla is adaptable to every dining situation from the fancy dinner party to the "bocata" or sandwich that in Spain is often eaten hastily on the counter of a local bar but it does take a bit of work."

Traditional Tortilla

Ingredients

Serves 4

6 medium sized  potatoes

1 onion, sliced

1 cup extra virgin olive oil 

8 large free range or organic eggs

salt

Peel and slice the potatoes thinly (I use a Magimix slicer), wash in plenty of water, drain and dry.  

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the onion and allow to cook gently for 3 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook until soft, they should not brown. This will take about 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness.

Drain the potatoes well and keep the olive oil.  Beat the eggs in a bowl with the salt. Combine the potatoes and onion with the beaten eggs.

Add a little oil to the frying pan and when hot, pour in the mixture of eggs and potatoes.  Cook the tortilla over medium high heat, for 1-2 minutes until set on one side. Shake the pan to keep the tortilla loose on the bottom. Place a big lid on top of the pan. Hold it tightly and reverse the pan. Add a little more oil and slide the tortilla back on to the pan to cook on the reverse side. It will only need a few minutes more. 

Serve warm with crusty white bread.