Just had this for dinner...not to mention lunch today and dinner last night. I actually did it a tiny bit different this time. I sliced the potatoes quite thin. It worked out great as well. Here is a link to a Spanish guy making this way...it's all in Spanish, but you will get the idea. http://www.5min.com/Video/El-Cocinero-Fiel---Tortilla-de-patata-8311

I love love love this dish! Each time I served it with a nice salad and it is plenty filling.

It is just like Mom's potato's and eggs growing up except no triangular potato cutting, tucking or flipping that is way more sophisticated than mom or grandma ever got, especially with six children waiting at the table. But what memories. divine. Seems every culture has its own version of different dishes. Thanks for reminding me of this one.

In Spain we don't use pepper to do Tortilla de Patatas. My mum prepares it with a big amount of olive oil. Them she fies the onion and the potatoes together, and when it is ready she drains the most of oil as possible and put the onion an the potatoes into a bowl where there are some eggs beaten.
It is a simple dish but marvellous at the same time.
Enjoy it!!

I just made this (for about the 4th time) and I've almost perfected it, even though we always love it no matter what. With the five eggs it's enough for our breakfast and then cold for lunch. DELICIOUS. It's one of my "go to" recipes when I don't want to spend too much time deciding. Always a favourite. THANKS.

And I decided that TODAY - this is going to be my FIRST RouxBe recipe to try!!!! I'm excited. I have the potatoes on now - I'll let you know how it goes!!!!!!!

SUCCESS is the name of the game today, baby! WOOT!! THIS IS A REMARKABLE, DO-ABLE, SCALABLE RECIPE! I was totally impulsive making this. I didn't even have all the ingredients - let alone the mise en place! ACK!! Don't "fillet" me for that. I used:

Regular vegetable oil
Land-o-Lakes Margarine
half an onion
2 1/2 big yellow potatoes (not russets)
black pepper
salt
3 eggs (because the rest froze somehow!)
A regular-sized large dinner plate
A regular knife (I don't have any specialty knives)
and a cast iron skillet (I can't afford non-stick)

This is what I did:

1) Triangled the potatoes while watching this vid over and over again

2) Heated the pan and added like 1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil and a small pat of margarine for bit of "buttery"-flavored goodness

3) Watched and stirred onions between trips back to the computer to replay the vid over and over!

4) Then added the potatoes to the skillet. Following the vid. NOTE: I don't have non-stick which is why I added the extra oil and brushed it up the sides of the skillet. But - even then, I still got caramelized, sticky bits as the potatoes cooked. I cooked them covered for 35 mins, stirring occasionally and removing any really browned potatoes (and by removing - I mean EATING). They were delicioso!!!

5) Once the potatoes were like the ones in the vid, I transferred them to a plate and spread them out to cool a bit. Then I washed the skillet making sure to get all the sticky, starchy bits cleaned off. Then I reheated the skillet and added slightly more oil than called for -again, brushing it up the sides (my version of non-stick).

6) I whisked 3 eggs (because the other ones were frozen solid! GRRR! This fridge drives me nuts, but you work with what you have, right?!). Then I stirred the slightly cooled potatoes in.

7) Once the pan was hot I dumped it in. At first I freaked out because it landed in the pan like a big pile of goo and just sat there - then I spread it out as was worried that 3 eggs were not gonna get this done for me! I was resolved to created a patata tortilla instead of a fritata! GRR! But then I realized that goo moves. So I rolled it around the pan til it was evenly enough coated and giggled it a bit and voila! Non-stick (piashantee style). So I started rolling up the edged until I got something like what was on the vid. It kept seeming too giggly in the middle so I was afraid to flip it with the plate. I had visions that I would get carpal tunnel pain or something JUST as I was turning it and end up having a potato "floor"tata. Not to mention shriveled up toes and third degree burns from all the scalding hot, extra oil. But my fears were in vain - I flipped it just like I flipped Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo (back when Nintendo was hot) - easily and perfectly.

8) Cooked it for like ten mins on the other side. And depanned it. Waiting for it to cool was 15 mins in human time was NOT possible. So I waited for 15 mins in dog years. That means I walked around the kitchen exactly ONCE eying those potatoes and eggs before diving into them like Micheal Phelps! Did I mention they were delicious?! Oh - well, THEY WERE DELICIOUS! My sis was over and she'd eaten breakfast already and she wanted to "taste" some. So I gave her a french portion and myself a down home-healthy-not-worried-about-cholesterol-born-in-the-south-big-momma's-soul-food-need-to-take-a-nap-after-American-sized portion. With just a smidge of low-fat black bean salsa. Gotta watch that waist-line. *cough* And after my sis had her sliver - she asked for another helping. American style. Good googly moogly - it was delicious. And I am CONFIDENT that I would make this for family and friends. So, THANK YOU, Rouxbe - you're a real... uhm... well... gem.

NOTE:

Hope you don't get mad that I changed the recipe or used some "unglamorous" ingredients - canned pepper, margarine, veg oil, etc. What I like about this recipe is that anyone can make it with things they already have in the house. Even no, low, and moderate income people can rock this recipe. It's also scalable so that people with more discretionary income can go to town with it - why settle for ov olive oil? Throw some black truffle oil on that bad boy! Add some safron! Heck - make a Balut Fritata if you got it! What I'm saying is - the best recipes are the ones where you can adapt them to your culture, tastes, and budget. This recipe is an open canvas! WOO HOO. Some of us live in food deserts, and don't have immediate access to fresh meats, fruits, vegetable, herbs, and oils. Nor do we have the money for them if we DO have access. But that doesn't mean we don't wanna cook or learn to cook or feed our families decent, filling meals. Nor does it mean we have to learn to "do more with less" - Recipes like this show us how to "make do with what's in front of you."

And while I love the lasagna recipes with the 18 different kinds of ground meat and expensive pasta equipment that take half the day to prepare and a small fortune to buy - these are the recipes I know I can and will use. All I have to do is get the basics down and - wham - this recipe is as mobile as I am! AND - I can teach it to anyone. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

uhm - you know that by "giggled" and "giggly" I mean "jiggled" and "jiggly" ....right???

There are a couple more little mistakes, but hey - at least my fritata was flawless. :)

And bwahahah! I just noticed that the recipe is a tortilla and not a fritata! Funneh. It doesn't seem like a tortilla to me. I kept thinking fritata! Weird. Oh well, I'm just glad the thing tasted good! :)

you go girl! cooking is loving what you cook; I rarely follow a recipe, just because there are a lot of things I don't like the taste of. But cooking this obviously made you VERY happy. Kudos to you. And no one cares about spelling errors, this isn't school and no gold stars are given out for correct language.

For that encouraging comment! And YES!! I totally love this recipe! Whenever I am summoned to a potluck - this is what I'll bring. You can't beat a recipe that has three basic ingredients you can get for $5 or less - with a total cost of not more than $10 that feeds 12 or more people! (dozen eggs, bag of russets, couple onions, some oil - and you're good to go).

I just read all the comments and wow - next time I will try this with some chorizo! Or bacon! That would probably be awesome. :)

First off, so glad you liked the recipe...and no I am not mad that you changed it to suit yourself. You are right, that's what cooking is all about (not sure that the Spanish folks would necessarily agree here, as they are very particular about their tortillas de patatas...there is something about keeping things "simple" and "classic" to the dish)....however...

We are not about hard fast rules here, "to each their own" I suppose, so go ahead and have some fun...which it certainly sounds like you did. So glad you had a good time making it and eating it. And thanks for the very descriptive and animated comment :-)

Hi Dawn! As promised, this one is easy and delicious. Thanks. I tend not to modify recipes like this the first time out. I served it with a version of the salad (cut down the dressing recipe to make just enough for two small side salads) and chorizo sausages from Oyama on the side. The toddler loved it too.

This is the best tortilla I've ever cooked. Fantastic!

This is the first Rouxbe recipe I've tried-I love the few, simple ingredients. It turned out to be really delicious! However, it was just a bit to salty for our taste. I didn't have kosher salt on hand so I substituted table salt, cutting the amount in half, but I think I should have used less. Any advice about that?

The advice I might give would be to just keep practicing and don't always follow exactly what a recipe says when it comes to salt, especially if substituting with table salt.

I think the best thing would be to watch the cooking school lesson on How to Season with Salt
This will help you to better understand how to season your food, so you do not over season.

Cheers!

Thanks Dawn, I really loved the way the tortilla tasted and how it came out, thank you very much for the recipe. I commented with some of my spanish friends and they all agree that the recipe is fine, but they usually make it like the guy in the link you posted, with much more olive oil, kind of poaching the potatoes, onions are added at front or in the end. In the end permits to heat a little more and get part of the potatoes slightly golden adding an extra flavor. People here tend to strain the potato-oil mixture and cool and keep the oil for the next time they make a tortilla de patatas (they even sell earthenware pots for this purpose here in Barcelona) Everybody's mother (especially guys...) makes the best tortilla in the world... (like the best canelones, the best paella, you can probably guess where this goes)
The "el-cocinero-fiel" recipe is more like most mothers would make it traditionally, with too much oil, but with that powerful and typical olive-oil taste. Just perfect, the garlic flavor is very subtle but delicious.

This tortilla is my favorite!!!

Oh my goodness...delicious! I did put my twist by adding cooked bacon,cheddar cheese, and parsley. I'm used to doing fritatas with noodles so the potatoes were a great surprise for everyone. We just devoured it. Yumm!

This was so good! I used black pepper and added some cheddar cheese. This recipe is a keeper, thank you!

Do the potatoes need to be boiled before peeling and dicing?

No, as per Step 1 of the video, the potatoes are simply peeled and then cut directly into the pan where they are cooked along with the onions. Cheers!

this looks fantastic .. I have a question about the oven dried tomatoes in the drill down... I get that you use the Roma tomatoes ... drizzle with Herbs de Provence
and olive oil ... but what temp to "dry" them ? turn frequently ? please advise ... Thanks.

Here is a link to the recipe. Cheers!

very cool ! Thanks Dawn ! :-)

I tried to made it this morning. I sweat the onions successfully..no color at all. But what should we do with these onions? the recipes did not say anything after translucent.. whether to put aside or cook along with the potatoes. it was very sad when I folded it together with raw potatoes and cooked and covered.. then after 5 or so the onions got burnt. Should we fold onion together after potatoes are cooked? Please let me have some advice. Thanks!

As shown in the video, the onions are left in the pan and the potatoes are simply added to the pan, along with the cooked onions. Cheers!