Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Omelette)

A few weeks ago in my cooking class it was egg day.  The teacher demonstrated how to make hollandaise, how to poach an egg, how to make various omelettes and then we made quiche.  Now as you may or may not know from reading the blog, eggs freak me out.  You can’t just get me to eat an egg.  It has to be cooked a certain way (and this certain can change from day to day), I have to be in the right mood, the wind has to be blowing in a certain direction – you get the picture.  Oddly enough quiche is one of my fave foods so egg day didn’t stress me out.  After watching the teacher make omelettes and talk about frittatas all I could think of were Spanish omelettes or tortilla espanola.

Tortilla espanola is like a frittata but is made with potatoes and onions.  I was first introduced to the idea while studying in NYC and then ate a ton of the stuff while vacationing in Spain a few years ago.  I’ve made tortilla espanola in the past but tend to avoid making it because you have to use a lot of oil to make it good.  This used to bother me because a.) olive oil is expensive and b.) using a cup or more of oil for an omelette hurt my heart a bit.  But given that I’m experimenting with excess these days it’s full steam ahead.

Recipes for tortilla espanola are generally the same.  The ingredients are eggs, potatoes, onions, oil, salt and pepper. It’s just the proportions that change.  I decided to use this recipe from Food & Wine by Mario Batali. I figured Batali has some street cred when it comes to Spanish food because he has a tapas bar in NYC and he did the whole traveling across Spain thing for PBS.

This recipe actually calls for a lot less oil than most recipes I’ve seen.  I ended up adding a bit more oil.  I like that this recipe doesn’t force me to flip the tortilla to get even browning.  Instead the tortilla has a stint under the broiler to brown it. So much easier!

This is the kind of light meal that’s perfect for summer.  Leftovers are great and don’t even have to be served warm.  I’m also partial to putting a wedge of tortilla espanola on some bread and eating it like a sandwich.  But eating it the way I pictured above works too – some toast and some salad.  I contemplated making an aioli but got a bit lazy.

I think I could use another Spanish holiday…

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