Dish · spanish
Patatas Bravas
Fried or roasted potato chunks, crisp outside and soft inside, topped with a spiced tomato sauce, often finished with a garlicky mayonnaise drizzled over the top as well.
Where it comes from
The dish grew out of Madrid tapas bars in the twentieth century as a cheap way to dress up fried potatoes. The name means fierce or bold potatoes, a nod to the sauce's heat.
What cooks argue about
The regional fight is over the sauce itself: a spicy tomato-based bravas sauce alone, as in Madrid, or a garlic alioli spooned alongside or over it, common in Barcelona and beyond.
Nobody has published a patatas bravas recipe yet. The page stays out of search until one exists, which is the rule for every thin page here.