A Tweak on the Traditional Tortilla Española Recipe

A Tweak on the Traditional Tortilla Española Recipe

The classic Spanish omelet is hard to beat. But try adding chips and salsa for a delicious break from tradition. Either one of these recipes makes for a satisfying breakfast or anytime snack

By Sarah Karnasiewicz in the Wall Street Journal

A SOAK IN olive oil can do wonders for just about anything—consider Sophia Loren’s complexion at age 80—but nowhere is the elixir’s magic more evident than in the classic Iberian dish tortilla española. Like many of the world’s great canonical recipes, this one is much more than the sum of its (admittedly humble) parts: potatoes, onions and eggs. The crucial element that separates it from your average short-order omelet? All that liquid gold.

It truly is miraculous, the way a gentle simmer in a pan brimming with great glugs of olive oil can liberate sliced potatoes and onions from their usual utilitarian guise, rendering them silky and lush and fragrant. Fat-phobes need not fear—all but a tablespoon or two of that oil will be poured off before the eggs are whisked in. But by then its work has been done. The savory cake that emerges from your skillet after a brief stay on the stove will be at once solid and succulent. It will play well with hot coffee or chilly beer or a split of bubbly. Because tortilla española is not breakfast; it is not lunch; it is not dinner. It is a meal of the moment, any moment.

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That said, it happens that right now, with the afternoon skies brightening and the first flirty little buds appearing on the trees, we are, according to my highly idiosyncratic personal calendar, bull’s-eye in the middle of prime tortilla española season. Just ask the hens: Like the rest of us, they’re giddy from the warm and lengthening days but, unlike the rest of us, express that gratitude not by raising glasses of rosé but by laying more and more eggs. You’ll see their spring bounty in the market, stacked up by the dozens next to bins of new potatoes, round and petite as marbles, and baskets of onions so fresh that dirt still dusts their papery skin. Take the hint, take them home together and make yourself something good to eat.

What more will you need, besides the aforementioned surfeit of olive oil? A clove of garlic, if it’s handy, and perhaps a sprig of rosemary for a nice, astringent bite. Though traditionalists will insist a tortilla española should be cooked entirely on the stovetop, pausing midway for a precarious flip, I feel no shame in opting for the less laborious (not to mention less disaster-prone) tack of finishing it in the oven. Either way, the end result is eminently snackable: My habit is to prep a tortilla in the morning, plop it down at the center of the kitchen table and carve away at it all day as I wander past.

Unassailable as this traditional take on the tortilla is, modernist Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, never one content to leave well enough alone, turned heads a few years back by revealing a genius tortilla hack: substituting a handful of store-bought potato chips for the spuds, thereby eliminating a whole lot of peeling and slicing from the process. Blasphemous? Nah, just delicious.

Tortilla Española Recipe

Total Time: 40 minutes Serves: 4 as a main course, 8 as an appetizer

• 2 cups olive oil
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 8 eggs, gently whisked
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, add onions and ¼ teaspoon salt, stirring to coat with oil. Sauté until onions are translucent, about 4 minutes. Add potatoes and stir to coat, sautéing until potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes. Add garlic, and sauté until fragrant, 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Use a strainer to drain off excess oil and reserve.

2. In a large bowl, combine eggs with cooked potatoes and onions, rosemary and ½ teaspoon salt. Heat 1 tablespoon reserved potato-onion cooking oil in a 9-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once hot, pour in egg-potato mixture, using a rubber spatula to smooth surface. Cook until eggs have set, about 8 minutes. Use a spatula to break any bubbles that rise to the surface.

3. Transfer pan to oven and cook until surface is just firm to the touch, 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes. Invert a large plate over pan. Hold plate firmly and flip to transfer tortilla to plate. Serve at room temperature, sliced into wedges.

Chips and Salsa Tortilla Recipe

Crazy as it sounds, corn chips and salsa make a delicious revision to the standard Tortilla Española recipe

Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 4 as a main course, 8 as an appetizer

• 1 cup watercress leaves
• 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
• ⅓ cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 fillets anchovies
• Zest of 1 lemon, plus juice of ½ lemon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups crushed thin corn tortilla chips such as Xochitl brand
• ¼ cup finely chopped roasted red peppers
• 8 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Make salsa verde: In a blender or food processor, pulse watercress, parsley, ⅓ cup oil, garlic, anchovies, lemon zest and juice, and ½ teaspoon salt until smooth and bright green. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine chips, peppers, eggs, 2 tablespoons oil and remaining salt. Let rest until chips soften, about 10 minutes. Heat remaining oil in a 9-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once hot, pour in egg mixture, using a rubber spatula to smooth surface. Cook until eggs have set, about 6 minutes. Use a spatula to break any bubbles that rise to the surface.

3. Transfer pan to oven and cook until surface is just firm to the touch, 10-12 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let rest 5 minutes. Invert a large plate over pan. Hold plate firmly and flip to transfer tortilla to plate. Serve warm or at room temperature with salsa verde spooned over top.