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Easy Weeknight Meal: Spanish Tortilla

2008_05_21-Tortilla.jpgThis is one of those dishes that tastes great morning, noon, and night. It's good cold, it's good hot. And it's as easy to pull together as a simple frittata...

We sometimes forget about the spanish tortilla, or tortilla española, the firm potato omelette that is a staple on tapas menus everywhere. A recent trip to the Spanish specialty store Despaña in Soho jogged our memory; they make several versions to order.

The process is so easy, and if you have a mandoline to slice the potatoes (we prefer thin slices to chunks), it's even quicker. You fry up slices of potato and onion in oil, then pour in some eggs and cook it much like you do a frittata, flipping it onto a plate at the end. We've eaten it in tiny slices as appetizers at a cocktail party, but a big wedge would make a filling meal with a salad or vegetable on the side.

In looking for recipes, we came across this tutorial from Fine Cooking that gives detailed instruction and tips on how to turn out the perfect tortilla — definitely worth a read.

A few recipes:

Related: Web Resource: La Tienda

(Image: Flickr member formalfallacy licensed under Creative Commons)

Tags

Ingredients - Vegetables, Recipe Roundup, frittata, spanish tortilla, tortilla española

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Comments (5)

Crazy - I just made this last night! It was a delicious supper alongside some sauteed spinach with golden raisins and chickpeas. I used the fritatta technique from Bittman's recent article about it... seemed much easier than flipping the tortilla in the pan.

posted by SisterRae on 2008-05-22 09:46:58
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This sounds so delicious right about now! I'm comfortable doing the flip, which is my only option since we don't have a broiler. Are we the only ones with a regular sized stove with no broiler? The drawer underneath the oven is supposedly for storage.

posted by Matilda on 2008-05-22 09:56:54
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sometimes the broiler is on the top of the oven... not underneath.
if you have a broil option on your stove, try that.

posted by revolution9 on 2008-05-22 11:13:03
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Here's the spinach recipe if anyone's interested - it was very tasty and a good accompaniment!
EatingWell: Spinach with Chickpeas

posted by SisterRae on 2008-05-22 13:13:30
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While visiting my mother-in-law, she happened to mention that her new electric range didn't have a broiler. In her 70 years, she never before cooked on electric. I hated---but was relieved---to show her that the broiler was inside the oven, at the top.

posted by Fontessa on 2008-05-22 23:31:00
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