Every time I go home to see my family, my mum asks, ‘What do you fancy today – fried eggs and peppers?’ And I always say yes.

In Spain, if you open most people’s fridges, you’ll see that the tray for holding eggs is completely full – generally, people don’t just have half a dozen. Eggs are really important in Spanish cooking: we love them boiled and fried (poached, not so much), and you need to have a good stash to hand in order to make tortillas, salads (see Russian salad, here) and lots of crispy fried eggs. I never eat fried eggs with a knife and fork: instead of cutlery, I have two pieces of bread – it’s the most fun part of eating them. I always finish them off with a little olive oil, Moscatel vinegar and sweet smoked paprika, for that extra bit of flavour. Eggs make the quickest dinner and, unlike in the UK where they seem to be largely considered a breakfast food, dinnertime is generally when they are eaten in Spain.

Eggs and potatoes are often used together in Spanish cooking. They’re two ingredients that people tend to always have lying around, so it makes sense. They pair wonderfully in salads (see the baby potato, ham, egg and tarragon salad, here), though the most famous egg and potato combination is, of course, the tortilla. When we were shooting the photos for this book, we stopped at this place at 8 a.m., after driving for an hour. We ordered coffees, and from where I was sitting I could see the woman who had served us in the small kitchen, making a tortilla. How could we resist? I love to eat tortilla hot, which is why I always cook mine so that it’s runny, and this was fresh out of the pan. With a small piece of bread and a coffee it was heaven: the best breakfast you could ever have. When it comes to tortilla, you can eat it any time – it’s something you never get bored with.