Here’s a traditional Spanish recipe that’s everywhere in country: Spanish tortilla! Tortilla española is a Spanish omelet made with eggs and sliced potatoes. You can find tortilla in almost every bar and restaurant. It’s a classic Spanish tapas recipe, sliced into wedges and often serve with a toothpick and a dab of aioli. It’s also often turned into a sandwich filling as a bocadillo de tortilla. When I lived in Spain years ago, I loved sampling each restaurant’s house version of tortilla. So we’re thrilled to bring you this recipe from the beautiful new cookbook Diala’s Kitchen by our pal Diala Canelo. Love Spanish recipes? Try our red sangria, classic paella, vegetarian paella, pan con tomate, and patatas bravas.
What is Spanish tortilla made of?
The Spanish tortilla is an iconic dish known as Spanish omelete, tortilla española, or tortilla de papatas. It’s made by frying potatoes in olive oil, then cooking them into an egg omelette. Spaniards eat it for any meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and it’s one of the most popular Spanish tapas. In fact, it might be more prevalent than the national rice dish, paella! Make it correctly and you’ll have a perfectly salted, thick pieces of omelette layered with buttery fried potatoes. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make a Spanish tortilla:
Yukon gold potatoes: Use only Yukon Gold potatoes or another waxy potato like red potatoes. Do not use starchy potatoes like russet potatoes, as the texture is more mealy than buttery. Olive oil and salt: This recipe calls for quite a bit of extra virgin olive oil and salt, but most are discarded as part of the frying process.Eggs: The egg ties it all together! Use cage free organic eggs where possible. Mayonnaise, for serving: If you’re not Spanish, this might seem odd. But a slather of mayo or more traditionally aioli, is the perfect sauce for the final flavor.
How to make Spanish tortilla, aka tortilla española
This is the traditional way to make Spanish tortilla, so it’s going to take a little time. Set aside 1 hour for this task! It’s not a quick and easy dinner recipe: view it as a fun project to experience Spanish culture. The nice thing is that you can easily make it ahead, and let it rest until mealtime or refrigerate leftovers for later (see below). Here are a few tips to know about how to make tortilla española:
Use a cast-iron skillet or non-stick pan. We used a 10-inch skillet to get a nice thick tortilla with potato layers (you’ll likely need the broiling trick below). You can also use a 12-inch skillet; it makes a thinner tortilla. Thinly slice potatoes and fry them, then add onion. Fry the potatoes for about 10 minutes, until tender and golden. Add the chopped onion in the last 5 minutes. Add beaten eggs and cook until browned on the bottom but slightly runny on top. Watch the heat level! You don’t want it too high or the bottom will burn. Check occasionally with a spatula. Be careful if you have a large burner: keep it on medium low heat.If it’s browned on bottom but still very runny on top, broil! Here’s a troubleshooting tip. You’ll likely need to use this for a smaller pan (the 10-inch size). If the bottom is brown but the top is very runny, remove the pan from the stove and broil for a few minutes until it’s mostly set. This will make it easier to flip. You may not need this trick with a 12-inch pan.Flip and cook the other side. Place the cutting board on top and then flip the tortilla right onto it. Cook the other side until set (about 5 minutes). Then invert it onto a cutting board again, so the top side is up.
Eat it cold, room temperature, or warm
Can you eat Spanish tortilla cold? One of the great things about tortilla española is that you can eat it cold, room temperature or warm. That makes it incredibly versatile. Eat it warm for dinner or brunch as a main dish. Serve it room temperature or cold sliced into wedges or squares as a Spanish tapas recipe. Really anything goes! You can leave Spanish tortilla out on the counter at room temperature for up to 2 hours before serving, making it easy to make up in advance. In Spain, people leave it out even longer: they’re much more liberal with leaving things on the counter than we are here in America (and I never had any adverse effects!).
How long will a Spanish tortilla keep?
How long does Spanish tortilla last? 3 days. You can serve tortilla española at a variety of temperatures, so it’s easy to serve as leftovers or make in advance. Here are some notes:
Keep it 2 to 3 hours at room temperature before serving. You can leave it for longer if desired (see notes above). Refrigerate for up to 3 days. You can serve it cold, or let it stand and come to room temperature.Reheat Spanish tortilla in a 300 degree oven for a few minutes if you’d like to serve it warm.
What to eat with Spanish tortilla
There are many ways to eat Spanish tortilla, depending on what meal of the day it is. Spainards traditionally eat tortilla española any time of the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner or tapas. Here are some ideas:
Brunch or dinner: Serve warm with an arugula salad and fresh bread. Sandwich: Make a bocadillo de tortilla: serve it room temperature between two pieces of baguette slathered with mayonnaise. Tapas: Cut it into wedges or squares and eat with toothpicks. Serve it in a spread with marinated olives, marcona almonds, Manchego cheese, and jamón serrano (the Spanish version of prosciutto).
About the book: Diala’s Kitchen
This recipe comes to you straight from the new cookbook Diala’s Kitchen, written by the lovely Diala Canelo. Diala is an incredible recipe developer and food photographer (you must follow her on Instagram). She is Dominican and now lives in Toronto, and loves to travel. One of the things we love about her book is that her food style is so similar to ours: fresh, plant-forward meals with occasional beautiful seafood, too. We literally want to make every recipe in the book: Falafel Salad, Salmon Burgers, Green Goddess Soup, Baked Feta, Truffle Pasta, Shrimp Stew with Coconut-Tomato Sauce, Caramelized Banana and Cinnamon Loaf, Pumpkin Scones…the list goes on! One special thing about this Spanish tortilla recipe is that Diala and I connected over a deep love for Barcelona. I studied abroad in Madrid and while I adore that city, my heart was stolen by beautiful Barca. Alex and I visited Barcelona in 2018 with our son Larson and I got to share all my favorite food memories with them. Diala recently visited Barcelona this year, and growing up Dominican, her culture was heavily influenced by Spanish cuisine. So we are absolutely thrilled to share her recipe for traditional tortilla española. Congratulations Diala, on an incredible book! We can’t wait to cook through it more.
This Spanish tortilla recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free. 4 from 1 review
6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (about 2 pounds)* 2 ¾ teaspoons kosher salt, divided 1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided** 1 medium white onion 10 eggs
To serve
Italian parsley Mayonnaise Sweet paprika
*Use Yukon Gold or another waxy potato like red skinned. Do not use russet potatoes. ** Only ¼ cup of olive oil is used in the recipe; the rest is discarded as part of frying. Most of the salt is also absorbed by the frying oil and discarded. ***You can also use a larger pan like a 12-inch skillet: the tortilla will be thinner and the cook time will vary a little.
