The Spanish Omelette

Although not as symbolic as the national Spanish dish, la olla podrida, the tortilla española or the Spanish Omellete is a highly renown dish originating in Navarre that goes back to the 1800's. The Spanish Omelette comprised up of mainly eggs, potatoes and onions, is a very light yet densely packed nutritious dish that had widespread throughout the world due to its simplicity and its fulfilling features.

The Spanish Omelette's however simplistic features is due to the fact that farmers would live in very sparse conditions and would tend to have very limited ingredients mainly what they grew such as eggs and potatoes. But at the same time they also knew how to make the eggs to have more volume in order to compensate the little eggs they did have and so the combination allowed them to create a fast, easy and nutritious dish to satisfy the biggest of stomachs.

However since then small alterations have been made, mainly cooking the omellette in extra virgin olive oil to have a soft crisp on the edges and possibly drizzling it a tad over to give it a different level of flavour. If that is not enough a bit of parsley gives it a nice bang with a nice scented aroma. But, as simple as the dish can be served, like this it can be easily presented with a other wide range of ingredients for example fresh tomatoes which goes very well with the whisked eggs of the omellete and other legumes of such kind.

 

As stated above the dish is very simple, so it is not very hard to prepare. It is quite uncommon around your average supermarket but its so simple to create with the your own fresh ingredients it really not a hassle. Thus it is probably best if you serve it yourself, rather than buy it prepared somewhere, as you can add your own mix of flavours onto the dish. It is best served hot and baked right out of the pan or oven when the potatoes are soft and toasty and the purity of the oil is still very pronounced. The ingredients in the omellete, specifically the potato, are a staple crop of the Spanish cuisine and it was not until they introduced to the Europeans that it got widespread and then around the globe. But the point is when it was first created they had the freshest ingredients you could have, grown right in their 'backyard', thus should not comprise either with yours.

The dish is an excellent choice in any occasion as it requires minimal ingrediants, as they did, and can be presented easily without the huge effort.