Spanish Omelet or Tortilla de Patatas

Many countries and cultures have forms of omelets (also spelled "omelette"); that is, egg dishes that are fried without being stirred, but which are usually flipped over to finish. In some cases the egg has various fillings like cheese, ham, vegetables, etc. In other cases the "filling" is cooked right in with the egg mixture, or the egg mixture is poured over the filling and then cooked. Spanish Omelets, or Tortilla de Patatas in Spanish, are a very common dish in Spain, where most frequently they are served cold, and they are often cut into wedges, like pieces of pie. 

Ingredients:

6 eggs, beaten, with a little salt added
4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced pretty thinly, but not like potato chips, more like for fried potatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
about 1/4  to 1/2 cup of olive oil for frying

You can add other ingredients like ham or chorizo (sausage), chopped green or red bell pepper, or mushrooms, and in Spain they even add asparagus at times, or seafood, especially tuna.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the potatoes and onion. Cook over medium low heat until the potatoes and onion are just softened, and not browned. Remove the potatoes and onions from the pan, leaving any excess oil, and add the mixture to the beaten eggs in a bowl. Stir well to distribute the ingredients. Return the mixture to the pan with the heated oil. Fry on one side until the mixture is pretty well set and is light brown in color. You can flip the omelet in the pan, or you can use another pan (as often is done in Spain), and cook the other side until browned. The omelet can be cut into pie-shaped wedges, and served either warm or cold, although as I noted above, it is often served cold in Spain.

I should have sliced the omelet to show it properly. I had it with a green salad. 

WORD HISTORY:
Tortilla-This word, closely related to "torte" and "tart" (the small pie), seems to go back to Indo European "terkwh/twork," which had the notion of "to turn, to twist." This gave Latin the verb "torqueo," with the meaning "to twist, to bend," which produced "torta," meaning "twisted." This later produced the noun form "torta," for a "twisted type of bread," and later for a "folded over cake" (the bending, twisting notion still present in the meaning). Spanish, a Latin based language, also had the word from Latin as "torta," which then gave Spanish "tortiella," for "a small flat cake." This then became "tortilla," and the meaning came to be applied to "omelets" in Spain and many other Spanish speaking countries, but in Mexico, it came to be applied to very thin, round bread made from cornmeal, or sometimes other flour, made by the native Indian population. This was borrowed by North American Colonial English circa 1700, and it has remained and spread to English in general with that meaning.