There is an Andalusian side dish made of potatoes, onion, parsley and a little vinegar that nonetheless has its own identity and its own city. It is called papas alinas and it is most associated with Cadiz. Here we would call all of that potato salad and leave it there, but the difference between it and what usually reaches our tables is a single decision about timing.

Warm potatoes, not cold

That is the whole trick. The potatoes are seasoned while still lukewarm, not after they have chilled in the fridge. Warm starch absorbs the vinegar and the oil instead of letting them slide across the surface, and that is exactly why this dish has flavour all the way through the bite rather than only on top. Whoever told you potato salad should be chilled first sent you in the wrong direction.

You need a kilo of not-too-large potatoes, one spring onion or half a sweet onion, three large eggs, a bunch of fresh parsley, extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar and salt. None of it is expensive and none of it is hard to find.

Method

Wash the potatoes and boil them in salted water together with the eggs, in the same pot. Once the water boils, take the eggs out after nine to ten minutes and cool them immediately under running cold water. The potatoes keep cooking for another twenty to twenty-five minutes from the moment of boiling, or up to thirty if they are larger. Meanwhile slice the onion julienne or into small cubes, and use only the leaves of the parsley.

When the potatoes have cooled to lukewarm, peel them and break them into pieces directly onto the serving plate. Peel and chop the eggs over the top, add the onion and parsley, and finally the salt, sherry vinegar and olive oil. Mix well and serve, either in one shared dish or in smaller individual ones.

From here on it's your business. In Cadiz a common variant is with tuna or another oily fish, and there are versions with olives, tomato or pepper. That is the entire logic of the dish: the base is cheap and constant, and what you build on it depends on what you have at home that day. The best summer recipes across the Mediterranean were invented exactly that way - out of scarcity, not inspiration.