I went to Barcelona with Kristen – one of my best friends – when I was 16. We spent the whole week sitting on patios, drinking Coke from glass bottles, and staring at cute Spanish guys. Today, I would do no such thing.
When I travel now, I spend all day of every day either eating or on my way to the next place at which I will be eating. Cute Spanish guys can surround me and I won’t notice anything except the plates of food in their hands (but really, for some reason, the waiters are particularly good looking).
Back then, in Barcelona, however, I had yet to discover my obsession with all things that taste good. I hadn’t done any research on what to eat. After we mistakenly ordered anchovies instead of nachos (“anoches” is a deceiving word), Kristen and I were terrified of menus. From that moment on, when we did eat, we stuck with patatas bravas.
Patatas bravas is really just french fries topped with spicy sauce. If you’re for real about it, you make an aioli. But I’m not that for real about it. I top my patatas with bravas sauce that’s basically a spicy version of Shake Shack sauce (which is basically Thousand Island Dressing). It’s probably not the most authentic take on Patatas Bravas but it is damn delicious. And damn delicious is really all we can ask for.
Serious Eats has great instructions for making the potatoes and a pretty delicious sounding sauce as well. If you’re on their level, please make their sauce and let me know how it is. If you’re going for a more Americanized, more throw-it-all-in-a-blender-and-then-eat sauce, make mine and let me know how it is.
Bravas Sauce
Ingredients
- 3/4 of 15-oz can of tomato puree
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard (or Dijon if you want to be slightly more classy)
- 1/2 cup mayonaise
- 1 large spicy dill pickle
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of smoked spanish paprika
- 1/4 cup of sambal
Steps
- Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!
Note: this makes a lot of sauce but this sauce is good on everything from fries to burgers to egg sandwiches.
