Tapas Recipes Egg and Cheese .

Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish Omelette)

Mediterranean eggs

Huevos revueltos con jamon (scrambled eggs & serrano ham)

Manchego cheese.

Manchego is one of the classic tapas recipes. Spanish cheeses can be served on their own or with olives, crusty bread and a dry sherry (fino).

A robust red wine (rioja) or the intense, nutty flavour of a Manzanilla sherry also suits this cheese to a tee.

It is also just as enjoyable as a snack or a dessert with fruit or a sweet sherry (cream or Xímenez).

Just slice it into thin wedges and serve it up.

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Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish Omelette)

This has to be the best-known tapas recipe of them all. Every Spanish tapas bar worth its name will have wedges of this on the menu.

Each region will have its own recipe. Some say it should be soft and others say it should be set hard; some say it should have onion and others say it should not; some serve it with mayonnaise and others serve it with tomato sauce.

I say just do it how you like it!

This delicious tapa can be served warm or cold.

Serves 4.

1/2 pint of olive oil
350g (12oz) potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1cm (1/2in) slices
1 onion, sliced into rings
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 eggs
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
small handful of flat-leaf parsley

Par-boil the potato slices for about 5 mins. Drain and set aside. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, then add the onion and the garlic. Cook until soft and translucent.

Add the potato slices and the parsley and mix it all up a bit to combine. Carry on cooking for another 5 mins or so.

Beat the eggs and add a good pinch of salt and black pepper to taste. Pour over the mixture in the pan and cook over a low to med heat for about 20 mins or until it's nearly set.

If you're good at it you can now toss it over and brown off the top. When I do this most of it goes on the floor so I just whack it under a hot grill for a couple of minutes to get the same effect.

You want it just set nicely and not like it came out of the Goodyear factory!

Serve it straight from the pan or allow it to cool and cut it into wedges on a plate. It's best savoured once it's cooled down a bit and the potatoes don't weld themselves to the roof of your mouth.

A little squeeze of lemon is a nice touch too.

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Mediterranean eggs.

Serves 4:

4 hard-boiled eggs
50g (2oz) Roquefort cheese
100g (4oz) pitted black olives
1 tablespoon cottage cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
A few leaves of the heart of a lettuce to decorate
Mayonnaise

Shell the hard-boiled eggs and slice them in half lengthways. Save a few whole olives for decoration and finely dice the rest. Save a small amount of the diced olives as well. Mix the hard-boiled egg yolks with the cheese, cottage cheese the diced olives and the olive oil. Stuff the eggs with this mixture. Put them on a serving dish, garnished with the lettuce leaves and whole olives, then sprinkle with the remaining diced olives. Serve with the mayonnaise.

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Huevos revueltos con jamon (scrambled eggs with serrano ham)

Scrambled eggs are a traditional tapa in Spain. This recipe uses serrano ham but you can use all kinds of ingredients to give it different flavours. Try it with bacon, chorizo, asparagus, spinach, mushrooms or onions.

50g (2oz) jamon serrano
1 tbsp olive oil (for frying)
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk (optional)
salt and pepper

Cut the jamon into small pieces. Beat the eggs together with the milk (if desired) and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the chopped jamon and pour into a frying pan. As the egg is cooking, gently stir it until it is cooked through but still very soft. Keep a close eye on it, if you leave it too long it will go like rubber! Once it’s ready, get it on your plate straight away and serve with crusty bread. Tapas recipes don't come much simpler than this!

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Meat tapas recipes

Fish and seafood tapas recipes

Vegetable tapas recipes

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