funeral breads and a tortilla

On Wednesday I made three nice focaccias for Tom Stratman's funeral potluck. The recipes were all from Carol Field's Focaccia.


This one is made of whole wheat with olive paste, which explains its peculiar color--it tasted better than it looked.


These are both Focaccia Pugliese, with potato in the dough: one with peppers, the other with potato and sage.

Tina IMed me while I was working on my breads, and when she heard what I was doing she invited herself over for some. I said she couldn't have any focaccia as they were for a funeral, but she could have some of the tortilla I planned to make with my leftover pepper and potato that wouldn't fit on the breads. She was pleased and rushed over, but when I served the tortilla she was confused. 'Is this all? Where's the bread?' It turned out that, hearing 'tortilla' in conjunction with 'focaccia,' and being more Mexican than Spanish, she'd expected me to make her some special extra bread and not just a potatoey omelette. She quickly recovered, though, and we enjoyed our eggs.



Tortilla

2T olive oil, divided
A potato, thinly sliced
A shallot, thinly sliced
Some roasted, peeled strips of red pepper
4 eggs
Pepper
A sprig of thyme, stemmed
Salt

In a big, round, not-too-sticky pan (I use this one), sauté the potato and shallot in a tablespoon of olive oil till everything's cooked but not browned. Scoop it all out onto a saucer. Whisk the eggs with some black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil to your pan and put it on medium heat. Arrange the peppers artfully, then scatter the potato slices and shallots around so they thinly cover the bottom of the pan. Strew thyme leaves over, then sprinkle with salt. Pour on the beaten eggs, tipping the pan around so that they cover the potatoes, then cook till it's almost done. Run it under the broiler for a minute or so (your pan ought to have heatproof handles for this step) to get the top done, then invert onto a plate and serve.