tortilla de patatas - spanish potato omelet

i have a friend named andrea, actually i have three friends named andrea but the one i’m talking about just became a lawyer. andrea and i went to college together and in the summer of 2004 we went on a trip backpacking through spain. this is where i tried two of the best tortilla de patatas ever. the first was in a small coastal town where we visited andrea’s host family and then the other was in barcelona halfway through a bike tour (best thing we did) of the city.

this dish always reminds me of that trip, our gallivanting around the country, meeting fun people and surviving on croissants, generic nutella and juice boxes. it was one of the best trips of my life. naturally i had to recreate this dish. i never realized this was going to be so easy to make (and delicious!). you can eat it as a main dish with a nice salad or as an appetizer on top of a sliced baguette. so here it is, my recipe for tortilla de patatas.

INGREDIENTS:

7-8 potatoes
5-6 eggs
1/2 white onion
salt & pepper
olive oil

PREPARATION:
first, peel the potatoes. cut them in half slice them. no need to slice them too thin but the ticker you slice them, the longer they will take to cook.

i sliced them about this thin:

(please ignore the chipped nail polish)

then chop up the onions

mix the potatoes and onions and season with salt and pepper

heat up olive oil in a skillet. and cook the potato/onion mixture. make sure everything is coated with olive oil.

drain the potatoes once they are cooked. do not discard the oil. you will need it.

while the potatoes drain whip the eggs

mix in the potatoes/onions

ok, so if you are using the same skillet for the following steps you have to make sure it is clean. i learned that first hand.
heat up about 2 tablespoons of leftover olive oil. and pour in the potato/onion/eggs. make sure they are evenly spread.

once the eggs are brown on the edges get ready to flip. the center should still be runny.
place a plate on top of the skillet and flip. this sounds scary but trust me, it is not too hard to do.