I am so nuts about this tortilla that it is actually threatening my love for the thai prawns. I've made it three times and each time it has been fantastic. My only caution is that you truly have to follow the method outlined of how to cut the potato. I was a little cavalier last time and came up with some wonky potato shape that threatened the tortilla's integrity.

I made this today for lunch and it was fantastic. Recipes that are so satisfying and contain few ingredients are keepers. I substituted black pepper as I'm not a fan of white. This will be a fun dish to take on a picnic. Thanks!

I have made this dish from memories as a child in my Gra-MaMa & Gra-PaPa's kitchen. Only without the oven-dried tomatoes. (this is an added touch) I remember avacado wedges and diced nopalitas served on the side. But this is an excellent recipe. Thanks!

Congrats from Barcelona ( Spain ).
We usually don't put pepper, but the recipe it's perfect !

Congrats !

A really good job of course !!! Great cook and excellent performance.

Good try. But we don´t use pepper, and it doesn´t look exactly like a tortilla de patatas.

I flipped it and and a bunch of hte egg came running out, dripping out everywhere. What a mess! More practice?

You must flip with confidence, and in one clean motion. Also your plate (the flatter the better) must be bigger than your frying pan. But in the end you are right, practice does make perfect. Good Luck next time!

I'm spanish & i found 2 wrong things:

there is no proportion in the video eggs-people

first is that u have to do it with much more oil

I didn't have any idea what to make for dinner, then I thought - yeah, three ingredients - Tortilla de Palatas. It sure impressed everyone. Had no problems with the instructions and it turned out beautiful. I served it with homemade salsa and salad. I will be making this again.

For traditional dishes like tortilla or paella, there are as many recipes as cooks in Spain. However, this is very close to the "canon" recipe. The main differences are that we don't normally put pepper, and the potatoes are usually deep-fried over medium heat and then drained. However, I find this way of cooking the potatoes a less oily alternative, and gives the same (if not better) results. As for the proportions, the classic recipe calls for one potato and one egg per serving, plus an additional egg, so the proportions here are correct imho. A nice trick is to fold the beaten eggs and the potatoes when the potatoes are still hot, and then let the mixture cool down to room temperature. This way the flavors meld toghether and the egg cooks a little, giving a more creamy texture to the tortilla.

Congratulations!

Recipes are inspiration, people, not infallible programs. You can and should try different things.

I had seen this video some time ago and hadn't tried it. Then, a few weeks ago, I had some boiled potatoes left over, and I thought..."Why not try that recipe?" I never looked it up again, though, so I totally missed that the potatoes are fried, not boiled. I just cut them to about the right size, mixed in egg, onion, green peppers, a little cheese and some chopped sausage. My finished tortilla wasn't nearly as nice as this one, but who cares? It was fantastic!

Joaquin R., above, says "...let the mixture cool down to room temperature. This way the flavors meld toghether and the egg cooks a little, giving a more creamy texture to the tortilla."

Is this the reason for 15 minute wait after plating the tortilla? I'm concerned the tortilla will grow cold and not taste as good if it were fresh out of a hot pan.

The way around that, AFAIK, would be to hold the tortilla in a warm (but not hot) oven. Or am I missing something?

When I lived in Spain the Tortilla was always room temperature. Sometimes it was warm, but mostly because I couldn't wait that long.
I say try it both ways warm and room temperature and stick whichever way you like it better. For me I like it closer to room temperature. But not the next day...it's always better the same day.

I'm sorry I didn't explain myself correctly, Ken. Once the potatoes are cooked, put them in a bowl and pour the beaten, raw eggs over them while the potatoes are still hot. Fold everything together and let sit for a while. This way the potatoes moisten and the eggs cook a little. Then turn the heat on and actually cook the tortilla, following the instructions in the video. This is the way I was taught to do it, but of course you don't have to follow that if you are in a rush, as the tortilla will be delicious anyway. You can also try different variations, like adding chopped garlic (to the the onion) and parsley or cilantro (when folding the eggs), or you can do it countryside style adding chorizo (red sausage) and bell peppers. Also try halving the amount of potatoes and adding blanched baby spinach, pinenuts and raisins.

For me, the perfect temperature is a little bit warm, but that's a matter of personal taste.

Thanks for the reply, Joaquin! I appreciate it.

One variant to this recipe I want to try is adding chopped leeks sauteed in butter, and then adding hot sauce to the tortilla as it cooks--enough to flavor but not overwhelm the taste of the eggs and potatoes.

It was a ver easy recipe. Thanks.....

Hi Rouxbe,

I made this last night. It turned out pretty tasty, but somewhat less beautiful than the one in the video (as can be expected with an inexperienced home cook like myself).

I'm wondering: I don't have any non-stick pots or pans, and used cast iron when I made it. Even though I thought I kept it moving okay and oiled the pan adequately, it stuck, resulting in chunks of potato falling out when I flipped it, and I had to work to get it to release from the pan. Any tips for inexperienced folks like me when it comes to using cast iron (or any non-non-stick surface) for cooking this recipe?

In retrospect, I think my pan was too hot, but I'd like to know what more experienced cooks think.

Thanks!

This recipe needs to be cooked in a non-stick pan, with rounded sides.
It is mentioned in Step 2 of the video, but I will add it to the text recipe as well. Thanks so much!

Hi Rouxbe!, i´m from Spain. As somebody said above, there are so many different ways to cook tortilla as cookers. But we used to deep fry the potatoes, adding the onion to the fry pan a few minutes later than the potatoes, becuase the onion get burnt easily. I never heard about adding pepper. You can add parsley intead of pepper, we do in the south of Spain.
Other popular versions in Spain are adding green peppers, or chorizo. Or if you don´t like onion you could substitute this for garlic.
I like tortilla when it´s still warm, some people like it cold. But it´s always better to eat it at the same day.
Enjoy!

Hi! I'm also from Spain and I'm with all of them, we usually deep fry the potatoes and then drain the excess oil. I will, however, try to do it the way shown here (it will have to be just for me, because my family won´t hear of it! :-) ), because of the lower fat.

There are also a good load of different ingredients to add to the tortilla: you can make two thinner tortillas and make a "ham and cheese" sandwich with them, placing ham and cheese in between the two tortillas.

Then, you can make "tortilla paisana", which adds to the tortilla ingredients chorizo, chickpeas, red pepper, all of it fried together with the potatoes and onion.

There are also people who don't like the tortilla with onion. The tortilla comes out a bit drier, but it's still delicious.

Good luck!!

This was delicious and very easy to make. I think deep frying the potatoes would have made this too greasy. I love the idea of adding chorizo or spanish ham to this dish. It would make it more of a main course rather than a tapas or side dish.

I followed the directions perfectly and it came out looking like it did in the video. Although I forgot to add salt before I added in the eggs! So it could have used a little more. I will be making this again soon.

Hello from sunny Alicante (Spain)! I am new here. This is my first comment and I will be brief and straight to the point:

1. I agree with all other spaniards about pepper and deep frying potatoes but I can tell I have seen people who fries potatoes this way, making it sweat, and, personally, I prefer it this way.

2 Tortilla de patatas (aka Tortilla Española) is a spanish symbol for us. We are 45 million spanish people: there are 45 million recipes of it. It is usual that in a house party you can try tortillas from different people in a kind of gentle (...or not) competition.

3 My tip: it is easier to flip if you first scratch the pan after adding the eggs. This way you mix the cooked egg from the bottom with the raw egg in the middle and it gains consistency. The pan should be quite hot at the begining to do this and lower after.

4 Favourite variation: add diced zucchini to the onion. This is a must on my Eastern picnics!!

5 At home, we like to garnish it with anchovies and a salad of roast sweet red peppers.

Wow! That's alot of tortilla de patatas, you are definitely right that there are many ways people make it. Ever bar, cafe and household has their own version. I even remember buying it at El Corte Ingles (a big department store) in Barcelona when I lived there.

Thanks for the feedback Nando! :-)

I've been making fritattas of every sort, including my version of this wonderful Tortilla de Patatas. I've made them in cast iron, Enameled cast iron, heavy weight non-stick skillets, and heavy weight stainless steel skillets. My failures occur when I try to use a light weight (cheap) skillet or my mom's Revere Ware. Just not heavy enough to hold and distribute the heat evenly. I have more trouble with oil sticking than with animal fats, either butter or lard (or bacon grease!).
When turning I like to use an old universal lid I got years ago, with no real lip, but a couple of low ridges. It has the handle on top which aids me greatly in stability. I make sure the egg is set all around, and on the bottom. If it sticks a bit during my exploration I gently lift to the sticky location and add a few drops of oil, butter, what have you. Set it back 30 to 60 seconds, then slip the fritatta sideways so the bottom is on the bottom of the lid. If you want to re-oil your pan, go ahead. I've never needed that step. I then turn the skillet upside down over the lid, seat securely, and flip them both together. This is where the handle on my lid comes in REALLY handy. I haven't had a failure on this step yet. I then cook either covered or uncovered, or a combination of both, until set.
Its important not to let the pan cool too much during the flipping. That hot pan is what will make sure the previous top, now bottom, doesn't stick. When done slide slickly onto your plate, serve or let cool, depending on your style of fritatta.

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.