Considered the key dish of Spanish cuisine, tortilla is one of our go to recipes when we have guests or when we are looking for an easy fix with few ingredients. Distinguished from its Italian cousin frittata by its characteristic thickness, it can also contain other featured ingredients, such as chorizo, like this one does. But of course, tortilla can be enjoyed by vegetarians, who instead of adding chorizo can add their favourite greens, or simply add a lot of parsley to the mix. This serves eight if eaten as a starter or four as a main – but keep it between two, and you can have seconds!

Ingredients
1kg potatoes
1 onion
1 chorizo for cooking (150g more or less)
7 eggs
salt
Extra virgin olive oil (or sunflower oil if you don’t want to fry in olive oil)

Step 1 – Peel the potatoes and chop them into small cubes, place them in salted water and leave to one side. Chop the onion finely and then the chorizo into small cubes.

Step 2 – In a large frying pan, place a good amount of oil to cover at least one centimetre from the base (there should be enough oil to cover the potatoes while frying). Place on the stove at medium heat and when the oil is hot fill with enough potatoes to cover the base of the pan. Fry the potatoes, stirring them every now and then, trying to take them out exactly before they start becoming crispy. You should be able to break them easily with the frying spatula, but they should neither be crunchy nor too dark yet. Place them in a bowl, and repeat the process until you run out of potatoes.

Step 3 – Now fry the onion. The process is similar: keep an eye on the frying onion so that it doesn’t become too dark or too crispy, taking it out of the oil when it’s just about golden and soft, and then placing it in the same bowl where you saved the potatoes.

Step 4 – Empty the frying pan of all the oil – bearing in mind it’s still very hot, be extra careful in the process! The oil will be quite clean, so you can place it in a glass jar to save for future use.

Step 5 – In the empty frying pan, fry the chorizo. As you can see it will lose a lot of fat, that’s why there’s no need to fry it in oil. Fry the chorizo till it’s crispy and golden and add it to the large bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

Step 6 – Separately, break the eggs in a bowl and whisk them with salt. Once well mixed, add the eggs to the large bowl and mix them together with the potatoes, onions and chorizo.

Step 7 – To make the tortilla, I suggest you use a frying pan that matches in size with a flat plate. Also, keep such plate handy, as it will be your tool when you need to flip the tortilla. Place some olive oil in the pan on a medium heat and add all your ingredients in. Let it cook for about 10 minutes, moving the pan every now and then: when you can see that the whole tortilla is detached from the bottom, it’s time to flip it.

Step 8 – Place the plate reversed on the top of the pan, then flip the tortilla on the plate and try, as carefully as you can, to put the tortilla back on the pan with the cooked side up. Cook for another ten minutes until the bottom of the tortilla is detaching easily from the pan. Stick a knife in the middle to check that it emerges clean: if it does, your tortilla is ready. Serve hot or cold during any season.