Makers of authentic tortillas or frittatas flip them, half-cooked, on to a plate, and return them to the pan the other way up. Others use the easier method of setting the tops of the tortillas under the grill.
Neither method is entirely satisfactory, in my experience. Flipping the tortillas – if one is dextrous enough to accomplish the task - leaves behind a fair amount of runny egg on the plate. Grilling the tortillas can cause the egg to toughen.
Angela Hartnett’s Guardian recipes are appealingly simple. Her tortilla goes into the oven once the vegetables are cooked and the egg poured over.
I’ve written about this method once before. This time, I used a more appropriate, 28-inch cast iron pan, which has acquired a non-stick surface through use (I wash it only with warm water, not detergent). I included 6 new potatoes, washed but not peeled, 1 medium onion, and 1 yellow pepper.
You need new potatoes, because once the diced pieces start to soften they will not break up when stirred. I gave them 15 minutes, above a gentle heat, rather than the 10 Hartnett specifies; only then were they edging towards tenderness. I threw in the onion, which I had sliced, and the pepper, which I had diced – pepper can take longer to soften. After a further 10 minutes, and regular stirrings, I allowed the pan to cool slightly, not wanting the egg that hit the pan to set immediately and therefore overcook in the oven. I poured over the egg, and put the pan in the oven for 10 minutes at gas 4/180C (Hartnett does not specify the temperature).
You may want to turn round the pan after 5 minutes. Otherwise, you are likely to find that some portions of egg remain obstinately unset after the rest has cooked.
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