My native tongue is Spanish, and the thought that "Tortilla" means "little cake" NEVER cross my mind.
BASIC RECIPE, SERVES FOUR PEOPLE
- 1 lb (454g) waxy potatoes
- 1 Large onion, or two smaller ones (should weigh about 10 oz / 285g), white or yellow varieties
- 6-8 Eggs depending on their size
- Olive oil (about two cups / 473mL if you're doing the traditional frying method)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Peel the potatoes (if you want to, I don't), cut halve or quarter them if they're very large, then cut them into thin but not paper-thin slices. Peel the onion and slice it thin (I do quarter moons). Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and beat them smooth.
If you want to use the traditional method, get the onions frying gently in more than enough olive oil to submerge them, about medium heat. After five minutes, drop in the potatoes and continue to fry until the potatoes are just starting to fall apart and you're getting some slight browning around the edges. Strain the vegetables out of the oil and stir them hot into the eggs.
If you want to use the non-traditional method, cook the onions in just a thin coating of olive oil over medium heat for five minutes, stirring near-constantly. Then put in the potatoes, and continue stirring until the potatoes are just starting to fall apart and you're getting some slight browning around the edges. If it seems like the onions are going to get too brown before the potatoes are finished cooking, stir in a little water. When everything is done, stir the hot vegetables into the eggs.
(Cooking the vegetables with either method should take about 20 minutes.)
Keep stirring the hot vegetables and eggs for a couple minutes, to help the eggs start cooking. Stir in the salt. Pour the mixture in a pre-heated omelette pan over medium heat, I use an 8-inch Teflon pan that I also use to cook the vegetables. I find this dish virtually impossible to make in anything other than a nonstick pan.
Soon after you've poured the mixture in the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook until the omelette seems to be 2/3-3/4 of the way cooked though, you can tell by shaking the pan and watching how the omelette jiggles.
Get a plate that's wider than your pan, and place it over your pan. Flip the whole assembly around and let the omelette fall out onto the plate. Return the pan to the heat, and slide the omelette back in, raw-side-down. Turn the heat back up to medium and cook until the bottom is as brown as you want it.
Get a clean plate or cutting board and turn out the omelette as before. I like to let cool down a lot before eating it.