Catalonian Patatas Bravas - potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce

I’ve just come back from a holiday in sunny Spain, so you might notice a few recipes from there making their way onto this site. Patatas Bravas can always be found in Spanish tapas bars - we definitely found time to eat this dish almost every lunch time!

The portion size for this recipe is for a single tapas dish - usually served either as a starter or with other small tapas dishes.

Ingredients

300g potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
100g tomatoes
Olive oil
Small onion
1 garlic clove
Pinch cayenne pepper
Teaspoon paprika
Crushed chillies
Pinch of sugar

First, prepare the potatoes

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 C.
• Drop the potatoes into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
• Heat olive oil in small frying pan and sauté the potatoes until they start to brown on the edges.
• Tip the potatoes and any remaining oil into a shallow dish and put in the oven for 20 minutes

Next, prepare the sauce

• Skin the tomatoes. Do this by cutting a cross into the skin on the top of each tomato, then dropping them into a bowl of boiling water and leaving them there for five minutes. Lift the tomatoes out of the water - the skins should peel off easily.
• Chop the onion and tomatoes into small pieces.
• Fry the onion in the small frying pan for a couple of minutes with the garlic and a large pinch of crushed chillies.
• Add a good shake of paprika and a large pinch of cayenne pepper, along with the chopped tomatoes, a pinch of sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water.
• Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.
• If you prefer your sauce to be smooth, blend the resulting sauce for a few seconds.

Put together and serve!  

• Serve the potatoes in a warm bowl, with the sauce poured over the top. Tapas bars in some parts of Spain also serve some aioli, or garlic mayonnaise, either on the side or on some of the potatoes.

NB: the image with this recipe is a stock image - as soon as our patatas bravas last long enough on the table to be photographed, I’ll add one of my own.