Patatas Bravas
Crispy fried potato cubes with a fiery tomato bravas sauce and garlic aioli — Spain's most reliably ordered tapas. The word brava means fierce, and the sauce earns that name: smoky paprika-spiked heat on golden, crunchy potatoes.
- 2 lbYukon Gold potatoes(cut into 1-inch cubes)
- 1/2 cupolive oil(for sauce)
- 4 cupsvegetable oil(for frying)
- 4 clovesgarlic(minced, divided)
- 2 tbspsmoked paprika
- 1/2 tspcayenne pepper
- 2 tbsptomato paste
- 1 tbspsherry vinegar
- 1/2 cupmayonnaise
- 1 tbsplemon juice
- 1 tspkosher salt
Potatoes can be parboiled ahead. Sauces keep refrigerated for up to 5 days.
- 1For bravas sauce: sauté 2 cloves garlic in olive oil, add paprika and cayenne, stir 30 seconds
- 2Add tomato paste and 1/2 cup water, simmer 10 minutes, add vinegar, season and set aside
- 3For aioli: mix mayo with remaining garlic and lemon juice, season with salt
- 4Parboil potatoes in salted water until just tender, about 8 minutes, drain and dry completely
- 5Heat oil to 325°F, fry potatoes 5 minutes until pale, drain
- 6Increase oil to 375°F, fry again until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes
- 7Drain on paper towels, season immediately with salt
- 8Arrange on platter, drizzle with bravas sauce and aioli, serve hot
Double-frying creates the crispiest potatoes. The bravas sauce should have real heat - be generous with the smoked paprika.
Patatas bravas — "fierce potatoes" in Spanish — are believed to have taken their current form in Madrid during the mid-20th century, when the city's tapas bar culture was expanding alongside postwar urbanisation. The word brava (fierce or bold) refers directly to the defining characteristic of the dish: a spicy, paprika-forward sauce that stands apart from the typically milder flavours of Spanish cooking. Food historians most commonly associate the dish with two now-disappeared Madrid establishments, Casa Pellico on Gran Vía and La Casona, where queues for bravas were already noted as part of local food culture by the 1960s. A third bar, Las Bravas, claims to have been serving their patented bravas sauce since 1950 and remains open today. The potato itself arrived in Spain from the Americas in the 16th century, and though it was slow to gain acceptance as food for humans, it eventually became central to Spanish cooking at all levels. Regional variations are considerable and passionately debated: Madrid purists serve a purely spicy tomato-paprika sauce, while Catalonia typically adds aioli alongside, and Valencia often double-fries the potatoes for extra crunch. Today, patatas bravas appear on virtually every tapas menu throughout Spain — an affordable, unfussy dish that is always shared.