Why It Works
- Pre-seasoning the eggs with salt helps them retain moisture during cooking.
- Gently cooking the potato and onion in ample olive oil develops a silky-smooth texture that helps create the perfect tortilla española.
- Flipping the tortilla ensures a creamy, dense center.
here ‘s a challenge for you : Name one dish that can be eaten as a nosh, an appetizer, and a main run ; that ‘s equally delicious both hot and cold ; that about anyone would be felicitous to eat at any time of day or night ; that is just as perfective for your child ‘s lunchbox as it is aboard a firm toast ; that ‘s considered as much the sphere of home cooks as of restaurant chefs ; and that ‘s composed of lone a few very ordinary ingredients .
I ‘ve been thinking about this for several days now, and the only good answer I can come up with is Spain ‘s celebrated tortilla española, besides sometimes called tortilla de patatas .
Made with egg, potato, olive oil, and sometimes onion, it ‘s one of those rare dishes that demonstrate how a handful of family ingredients can be transformed from boring to exceptional with just a little bit of dear technique. It may seem hard to get jazzed about an egg and potato omelet, but, when made well, tortilla española is one of the greatest of egg dishes. No wonder the spanish discover precisely about any excuse to eat it .
The hard share, as one might expect when dealing with a home dish made by millions of cooks in Spain and afield, is that there are many ideas about what a tortilla española should be. In both my travels and my recipe research, I ‘ve seen ones angstrom thin as pancakes and others equally thickly as tall mallow wheels. I ‘ve seen some made with onions and some without. I ‘ve seen the potatoes fried vigorously until crisp and browned—Ferran Adrià famously put potato chips in his—and, alternatively, cooked gently to the detail of falling apart. Once they ‘re cut open, I ‘ve seen some tortillas ooze idle egg and others that are solid all the way through. Clearly, there ‘s no one right manner to do it .
This, then, is the manner I like it : nice and chummy, with onions, the potatoes cooked slowly in oil until they ‘re satiny and soften, and the egg damp and custardy but not runny in the center .
here ‘s what you need to know to make it at home .
Tortilla Española Step 1 : Salt Your Eggs
This is not the first gradation you ‘ll see in most tortilla española recipes, but there ‘s a good reason to change that. Contrary to popular impression, pre-salting testis does n’t thin them and turn them reeking ; it actually helps them retain moisture during cooking. once I ‘ve added a generous emergency of salt and beaten the testis very well, I set them aside while I get to work on the rest of the tortilla .
Tortilla Española Step 2 : Cook Your Potatoes and, Yes, Onions
adjacent, peel off and slice the potatoes and onions thinly. I like Yukon Golds for their politic, less starchy texture, but you can use russets, excessively. The onions are a contentious subject among spanish cooks, and some will swear that including them invalidates the recipe. ( “ It ‘s tortilla de patatas, not patatas y cebollas, ” they ‘ll say. ) That may be, but if so, an onion-y tortilla española is the most delightful adaptation of incorrect I ‘ve always tasted. slowly cooked in the oil with the potatoes, the onions are melting and dessert, but they besides serve another important function : They add moisture to the tortilla. I like to think of them as an indemnity policy against dispassion. even if you incidentally cook the tortilla a little more than you intended, those pockets of moisture guarantee it wo n’t taste that way .
Vicky Wasik
now comes the most extravagant partially of the recipe : electrocute in anoint. It ‘s excessive because you need a set of oil here—my recipe calls for about two cups, and it ‘s 100 % extra-virgin olive anoint, which is n’t precisely cheap. Some modern recipes for home cooks use significantly less vegetable oil, but it good does n’t come out the same. I like to go the traditional route here .
I have a few things to say in defense of using a draw of olive vegetable oil. First, it ‘s all-important to bathe the potatoes and onions in ample oil so that everything tenderizes evenly and then that olive oil season can work its way into all of the vegetables. Second, you should feel free to use a less expensive olive petroleum here : Heating it kills off most of the nuanced flavors of the costly oils anyhow. And one-third, you end up draining the cook potatoes and onions, and the leftover vegetable oil is even more delicious than earlier ; it can be used again in other dishes ( or to fry subsequent batches of potato and onion for more tortillas, which you will want to make ). Want some ideas ? It ‘s excellent used in pesto and salad dressings, for cooking viola da gamba alabama ajillo, and to roast or confit garlic .
ultimately, none of it goes to waste .
I heat the oil until it ‘s shimmering, then add all of the potatoes and onions to the frying pan. At first, they wo n’t all seem to fit, but with a little arouse, they ‘ll compress as they cook. I keep it fair hot enough that the petroleum is bubbling around all the pieces of food, but not so hot that it ‘s frying vigorously. once done, the potatoes will be highly tender and breaking apart, and the onions will be smooth as silk. This takes about 20 minutes .
A creamy, dense center .
Vicky Wasik
I find that the texture of the fudge potatoes plays a critical character in how the tortilla turns out. When tortilla española is made with firmer slices of potato that retain their human body, what you end up with is an omelet that has a very clear watershed between egg and occupy. There are sections of egg, and then sections of potato. This set about makes it more difficult to form and flip the tortilla, since the eggy depart is indeed loose and fluid. But when the potatoes are partially broken down, they mix into the egg and thicken it. ( The remainder hotness from the potatoes and onions besides helps thicken the eggs slightly. )
The tortilla is easier to form and flip with the thick clobber, and the inside has much less of a clear line between potato and egg : rather, it has a delectable coherence, with larger bits of potato and onion studded throughout .
once they ‘re done, I drain the potatoes and onions through a net strainer, saving that oil for later practice. When they ‘re barren of overindulgence vegetable oil, I season the potatoes and onions well—a bland potato and egg cup of tea will never be a good one .
Tortilla Española Step 3 : Froth Eggs, then Mix in Potato and Onion
I give the eggs one final vigorous beat to froth them up, which helps create an aired tortilla belated, and then mix the potato and egg in .
Some people swear that you should let the potato-egg mix sit for a half hour or more before cooking, but I do n’t have the patience for that, and I have n’t noticed any major remainder in batches left to sit longer. ( In fact, letting the potato concoction cool besides much can make it harder to cook the tortilla, as the cold mix will take longer to set in the center of a compact tortilla. ) I give it about five minutes or so, which is more or less how long it takes to clean out the skillet—a 10-inch one, for my recipe—and heat a few tablespoons of the reserved petroleum in it.
Vicky Wasik
A note on the frying pan : traditionally, this would all be done in a carbon steel frying pan, and, if you have one that ‘s well seasoned, you surely can use it hera for both the fry and the omelette-cooking steps. If not, a nonstick frying pan is your best option. I use the nonstick for both steps. ( The potatoes and eggs will ensure that the nonstick surface never reaches dangerous vaporization temperatures, even if you place the pan over high heat. )
Tortilla Española Step 4 : cook, Shake, Swirl
When the vegetable oil in the frying pan is hot, I scrape the egg mix in, shaking and swirling the pan to keep the tortilla in apparent motion. Heat regulation is significant here : Too hot, and the surface may burn before the testis has cooked through ; not hot adequate, and you wo n’t get much browning .
Tortilla Española Step 5 : form and Flip
angstrom soon as the egg is perceptibly thick, I take a spatula and push it in all around the sides. The theme is to start giving the tortilla its characteristic puck-like form. The more solid the egg gets, the more it will hold that shape. ultimately, though, the key to getting the condition right is to flip the tortilla .
Flipping is the function about making a tortilla española that most people dread, but it ‘s not excessively hard, and it ‘s essential for getting barely the right human body and texture. Skipping the pass and using the broiler to cook the top of the tortilla has a inclination to puff it up and create a very different texture from the one you ‘re after here .
precisely when you flip, and how many times you do it, is a matter of personal preference. If you want a fluid center, you ‘ll need to attempt a flip while the egg is still fairly loosen in the center. If you want it well done, you can wait until the egg is more specify. I try to take a middle road, with the center and top still slightly fluid, which should yield a custardy center when it ‘s finished .
For those who are uncomfortable with the somersault, doing it equitable once may be more than enough. But if you have the technique down, flipping back and forth a few times can be helpful in creating a creamier center from border to edge : much like with flipping a steak, the more times you turn the tortilla, the more the heat building up near the surface can dissipate, preventing those sub-surface layers from cooking a much as they otherwise would. If you feel improving to the job, flipping more is a good theme .
Vicky Wasik
To do it, you ‘ll want to set a home plate with a shoal ( or no ) rim, a flatcar lid, or some other firm, flat come on top down on top of the tortilla ; it can be larger than the pan by a few inches, but it must, at a minimum, be slenderly larger than the tortilla itself. then lift the frying pan up, place your hand apartment on top of the plate, and, in one very immediate motion, rotate so the plate is on the bottom. The quicker you do this, the better, since hesitation and retardation are precisely the things that will lead to your tortilla slipping out and hitting the floor. I ‘d recommend doing this over the bury or a drivel can merely in case of any drips. Holding the plate or hat with a dish towel is besides advisable. ( Remember : That tortilla is hot ! )
After you ‘ve successfully flipped it, add another tablespoon or two of reserved oil to the pan, then carefully slide the tortilla back into it. Use the spatula again to press in on the sides and reinforce that puck shape .
At this point, you need to cook the tortilla merely long enough to set the buttocks ( again, flipping it one or two more times, if you wish, until it ‘s done ). Leave it a small longer if you want a more fully cooked plaza ( called “ cuajada ” in spanish ) or less if you want it runny ( “ jugosa ” or “ babosa, ” as they say ) .
then you can either cautiously slide the tortilla out of the frying pan onto a serving plate, or flip it out onto a serving plate using the like technique as ahead .
How you eat it—hot, cold, in small cubes as an hors d’oeuvre, in a hefty hacek for dinner—is entirely up to you. ( Though, however you serve it, I ‘d recommend a generous dollop of homemade allioli on the side. ) The options are endless .
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