Patatas Aliñadas (Spanish Potato Salad with Fish)

You can read about how I came to get such a lovely gift in my recipe post for Berenjenas con Miel (Eggplants with Black Honey): here. Also in that care package was a container of a Picual-Arbequina olive oil blend.

I wanted to create a version of a Spanish dish featuring that flavorful oil and decided on Patatas Aliñadas. Patatas aliñadas is one of those dishes that doesn’t look very impressive; it has simple ingredients as it's basically potato salad. But the secret to this recipe is to use high quality ingredients that have a lot of fresh, vivid flavor.

This olive oil has a strong, grassy taste with a little bit of a spicy kick at the end. It's delicious!

In Cadiz, where some of the world’s best tuna is produced, they use tuna in this recipe. I decided to use some sustainably caught wild sardines for which our area is famous.

Ingredients

• 1 to 2 pounds organic potatoes, scrubbed
• water
• 2 organic green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 T fresh parsley, chopped
• high quality olive oil
• 3 to 4 T sherry vinegar
• freshly ground salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 2 cans sustainably caught wild sardines

Procedure

Cube the potatoes and place them in a large pot. Cover them with water and bring the water to a boil. Allow the potatoes to boil until just tender.

While the potatoes cook, place the eggs, green onions, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Chop 1 can of sardines and add that to the bowl; keep the other sardines intact for garnish.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and add them to your bowl. Pour in the sherry vinegar. Add olive oil to coat all the ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon your salad into a bowl. Lay remaining sardines on top as a garnish. This salad is as good cold as it is warm, but we prefer it just cooked and warm.