Papas Aliñás is the Cádiz tapa of small waxy potatoes boiled in their skins with lots of salt, then dressed warm with olive oil, sherry vinegar, onion, and parsley. They are the foundation of Cádiz's most famous tapa — tortillita de camarones — and the perfect thing with a glass of cold sherry on a hot afternoon.
Papas Aliñás is from Cádiz, the Andalusian port city on the Atlantic. The name is Andalusian: papas (potatoes, from the Quechua via the Canary Islands) and aliñás (dressed). The dish is built on the Atlantic trade — potatoes, vinegar, olive oil — and is the perfect foil for the cold, crisp sherry the city invented. It is the signature tapa of the beachside chiringuitos of Cádiz.
A bowl of small wrinkled potatoes in their skins, glistening with oil. The inside is fluffy; the dressing is sharp from the vinegar, sweet from the oil, with raw onion bite and parsley freshness. Eat them with a toothpick and a cold glass of manzanilla sherry, watching the sea.
The potatoes are cooked in very salty water (like seawater) so the skins wrinkle and the flesh seasons from within. They must be dressed while warm — the oil and vinegar soak in better. The vinegar should be sherry vinegar (vinagre de Jerez), which has a complex, slightly nutty acidity no other vinegar matches.
Variations
Some add diced green pepper; some add chunks of salt cod or tuna; the onion type varies (spring onion, white onion).
On the Palate
Where Papas Aliñás sits in the Spanish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
7 steps · 15 min active + 25 min waiting
- 12 min
Place small waxy potatoes (skins on) in a pot; cover with water; add a generous handful of coarse salt.
Watch outSalt the water heavily, like seawater — the skins should wrinkle as they cook, a sign the potato is seasoning all the way through.
- 225 min
Boil 20-25 minutes until tender when pierced; drain.
- 33 min
While warm, peel off loose skin flakes (some skin stays); cut each potato in half.
- 43 min
In a bowl, whisk sherry vinegar with salt until dissolved; stream in olive oil to emulsify.
Watch outWhisk the salt into the sherry vinegar until dissolved, then stream in the oil so it emulsifies and clings — split dressing just slides off.
- 52 min
Add finely sliced onion and chopped parsley to the dressing.
- 615 min
Toss the warm potatoes in the dressing; let sit 15 minutes to absorb.
Watch outToss and dress the potatoes while still warm — warm flesh drinks in the oil and vinegar; cold potato just sits there bland.
- 72 min
Taste; adjust vinegar and salt; serve at room temperature.
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