Potato Bombas are breaded and fried mashed potato balls with meat filling. An invention hailing from the Barceloneta beachside neighborhood of Barcelona, these are must-have tapas when visiting this jewel of the Mediterranean. If a trip to Barcelona is not on the horizon right now, make them yourself with this recipe!
Visiting Barcelona inspired me to recreate the food I discovered there. There were many dishes I wanted to try, but in particular I was intrigued by these meat-filled potato bombas topped with a duo of flavorful sauces.
Spanish potato bombas were actually invented at a restaurant named La Cova Fumada in the Barceloneta neighborhood of Barcelona. In my Barcelona trip report I mention that I had planned lunch one day in Barceloneta. I intended to eat at La Cova Fumada, the birthplace of these famous potato bombs, but that unfortunately didn't happen due to a few circumstances.
I still managed to eat potato bombas on two other occasions in Barcelona. It was so memorable that I absolutely had to make them myself at home. These flavorful fried balls are incredibly delicious and relatively easy to prepare. I definitely recommend adding them to your next homemade Spanish tapas menu.
How to make Potato Bombas
Make the filling by sautéing chopped onion, and then adding a combination of ground beef and pork. Cook until the meat is cooked through and crumbly, then add grated tomato and spices. Set aside to cool until you're ready to assemble the potato bombas.
Next, make mashed potatoes. Simply peel and cube up potatoes, and boil them in salted water until tender. Then drain and mash them with olive oil and seasonings.
Once the potato mixture is cool, add a beaten egg. Scoop ¼ cup of the potato mixture at a time into the palm of your hand. Carefully pat the scooped potato into a disc about ½-inch thick in the palm of your hand.
Add 1 tablespoon of the cooled meat filling into the center, then carefully cup your hand to start bringing the edges of the potato together and use your other hand to pinch it closed.
Smooth into a round ball and set aside as you continue shaping the remaining bombas. The bombas can be refrigerated at this point until you are ready to bread and fry them.
To each of 3 wide bowls add flour, beaten eggs, and dried breadcrumbs to set up a dredging station. Dredge each bomba one at a time in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Set aside on a clean tray or work surface until the remaining bombas are breaded.
Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 350°F. You’ll want the oil to be deep enough so the bombas will be fully submerged once you add them to the oil.
Fry the breaded potato bombas in batches for about 2 minutes each or until they are golden brown. If you fry them much longer the balls may start to crack open. Set finished bombas aside on a paper towel-lined tray or sheet pan to drain. Serve the hot bombas immediately with allioli and bravas sauce.
Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
Expert tips
Our favorite bombas from Barcelona were filled with stewed beef. The more traditional version, however, uses ground meat as the filling which I have used in this recipe. You can modify the recipe and change up the filling to suit your preferences.
Using a measuring cup and spoon will save the day and yield more accurate and evenly sized potato bombas. Small discrepancies in measurements, or depending on how much you peel your potatoes may fluctuate the number of bombas you yield.
Although there are a number of steps, the recipe is actually not very difficult. It just requires a bit of planning and patience. The different components are quite easy to make and the Spanish potato bombas themselves are pretty easy to assemble as well.
Make these potato bombas gluten-free by using gluten-free flour in the bravas sauce, and using gluten-free flour and gluten-free breadcrumbs for the breading.
I highly recommend using a deep fryer to cook these if you can. It keeps the oil temperature steady, and doesn't make a huge mess on the stove top.
What to do with leftover allioli and bravas sauce
There are two sauces that go on the potato bombas: a garlicky, mayonnaise-based allioli sauce, and spicy, smoky bravas sauce. You may end up with some leftovers of both, but there's a lot of great things you can do with them!
For example, use some of your leftover sauces to make what I call "trashy" huevos cabreados, or angry eggs. Huevos cabreados was one of my favorite discoveries in Barcelona.
When we ordered it we really didn't know what to expect, but were floored by how much we loved this dish. It's a combination of French fries, bravas sauce, and allioli topped with a fried egg. The egg is sliced table side and everything is tossed together.
I recreated it in the trashiest, most American way possible: with frozen tater tots baked until crisp in my toaster oven.
This was a super easy rendition of the original, and I didn't even need to heat up my deep fryer or slice a single potato into matchsticks. I just drizzled the two sauces over the top of my crispy tater tots, finished with a fried egg, and viola!
You can follow the same basic process using homemade French fries or cooked frozen fries if you prefer. Either way, it's a really delicious flavor combination and super easy once you have made the sauces!
Other recipes you may like
- Patatas Bravas (Fierce Potatoes)
- Pan con Tomate (Spanish Tomato Bread)
- Warm Stuffed Piquillo Pepper Bruschetta
- Escalivada (Catalan roasted vegetables)
- Spanish Potato Salad (Ensaladilla Rusa)
- Gambas al Ajillo (Garlic Shrimp)
- Browse all Spanish Recipes
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also follow me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Barceloneta Potato Bombas
Ingredients
Allioli:
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and left whole
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Kosher salt
Filling:
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion or ½ large onion finely chopped
- 4 ounces (113 grams) ground beef
- 4 ounces (113 grams) ground pork
- ½ tomato flesh grated on a box grater, skin discarded
- 1 teaspoon sweet (regular) paprika
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Chili flakes or cayenne pepper to taste
Potatoes:
- 2 ½ pounds (1.13 kg) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
- Kosher salt
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large egg
Bravas sauce:
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sweet (regular) paprika
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken broth
- Kosher salt
- Pinch cayenne pepper or more to taste
To finish:
- Vegetable oil for frying
- All purpose flour as needed
- 2 to 3 large eggs beaten
- Dried breadcrumbs as needed
Instructions
- To make the allioli: In a small saucepan combine the garlic cloves and olive oil and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the garlic is tender and honey gold (occasionally tilt the pan as needed to keep the garlic submerged–even off the heat the olive oil should be hot enough to keep cooking it). Watch the garlic carefully so that it does not overcook. Lift the garlic cloves from the oil with a slotted spoon and set aside on paper towels to cool. Reserve the garlic oil for another use (1 tablespoon will be used later for the allioli).
- In a small food processor fitted with the metal blade, puree the garlic cloves, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of the garlic oil. Taste, season with salt, and pulse to mix. Scrape the allioli into a lidded storage container and chill for up to 3 days. You should have about 1 cup allioli.
- To make the filling: In a large non-stick skillet heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and cook until softened. Then add the ground beef and pork, and cook, breaking the meat up into small pieces with the edge of a wooden spoon, until no longer pink and most of its natural liquid has evaporated. Add the grated tomato, paprika, garlic, salt, and cayenne and continue cooking until the remaining liquid has absorbed/evaporated. Set aside to cool completely.
- To make the potatoes: Add the cubed potatoes to a pot and cover with cold water by at least an inch. Salt generously and bring to a boil over high heat, being careful it doesn’t boil over (lower the heat as needed). Boil the potatoes until they are easily pierced with a fork, drain and then return to the pot off the heat. Add the olive oil and mash the potatoes with a potato masher until smooth. Adjust seasoning if needed. Let the potatoes cool slightly and then mash in the egg (you don’t want the potatoes super hot or else the egg will cook). Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- To assemble the bombas: Scoop ¼ cup of the potato mixture at a time into the palm of your hand. You can slightly wet your hands as needed if the potato starts to stick to your hands during this process. Carefully pat the scooped potato into a disc about ½-inch thick in the palm of your hand. Add 1 tablespoon of the cooled meat filling into the center, then carefully cup your hand to start bringing the edges of the potato together and use your other hand to pinch it closed. Smooth into a round ball and set aside as you continue shaping the remaining bombas. The bombas can be refrigerated at this point until you are ready to bread and fry them.
- To make the bravas sauce: Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the flour and paprikas and whisk for a couple minutes to ensure the flour starts to cook. Slowly add the chicken broth while continuing to whisk into a smooth sauce. It will thicken more once the mixture comes up to a boil. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. This sauce can be served hot, warm, or room temperature.
- To finish the bombas: To each of 3 wide bowls add flour, beaten eggs, and dried breadcrumbs to set up a dredging station. Dredge each bomba one at a time in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, and set aside on a clean tray or work surface until remaining bombas are breaded. You can also bread them in batches as you fry them, but this can get messy.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 350°F. You’ll want the oil to be deep enough so the bombas will be fully submerged once you add them to the oil. Fry the breaded bombas in batches for about 2 minutes each or until they are golden brown. If you fry them much longer the balls may start to crack open. Set finished bombas aside on a paper towel-lined tray or sheet pan to drain. Serve bombas immediately with the allioli and bravas sauce.
Notes
- Make these potato bombas gluten-free by using gluten-free flour in the bravas sauce, and using gluten-free flour and gluten-free breadcrumbs for the breading.
- Using a measuring cup and spoon will save the day and yield more accurate and evenly sized potato bombas. Small discrepancies in measurements, or depending on how much you peel your potatoes may fluctuate the number of bombas you yield.
- I highly recommend using a deep fryer to cook these if you can. It keeps the oil temperature steady, and doesn't make a huge mess on the stove top.
- This recipe uses kosher salt (aka cooking salt, kitchen salt, coarse salt outside of the US). If you are using table salt, definitely scale down the salt as that is a saltier type of salt! The type of salt will make a big difference in how salty your food tastes, so keep that in mind.
Nutrition
*All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.*
Amanda Adams - says
If I freeze the floured & breadcrumbed bombas, how long should I fry them from frozen? or should I thaw them first before frying? when preparing to serve them?
Victoria says
Hi Amanda,
You could freeze them after assembling/breading but before frying. They would probably need an extra minute or two but you can look for signs of the golden brown exterior and then take one out and test it with a digital thermometer inserted into the center of one (the interior should be at least 165 degrees F). If you thaw them before frying, they probably will fry in the same amount of time indicated in the recipe but I haven't frozen these in the past so I can't say for sure how long they will need.
Alternatively, you could also fry them all and then cool them and freeze them fully cooked and then reheat them in an air fryer if you have one. I've done this before with other deep-fried items. This could be a backup option if you end up frying them all but don't eat them all.
If you do freeze them, feel free to report back on how it goes and how long you fried them! It would be helpful for others as well 🙂 Thanks!
Amanda Adams - says
Wow! Thank-you for replying, Victoria!
I actually made my "bombas" (technically "bombes" in Catalan) a couple of weeks ago. Not entirely your recipe because my husband had had one at a different restaurant & that's what he hoped for - it was botifarra negre (Catalan black sausage) with spices and white beans inside the "bomba". It made 6, so I froze four. So today it was time to fry another two for lunch; but cooking from frozen made me very nervous. & I know things like commercial frozen croquets actually warn on the label AGAINST thawing. You MUST cook "from frozen" or they'll fall apart (they say). Making sure they were hot in the middle & not burnt on the outside was the challenge I thought. All of the ingredients had obviously already been cooked before being assembled, so rawness wasn't a problem. I am sorry to say I have not got a digital thermometer. Fortunately the pot I was frying them in would hold two at once without danger; so I heated up the oil & lowered them gently in. Naturally I was preparing a little salad garnish & so not watching the clock either. I think they probably had at least 9 minutes each. As soon as they were lightly browned I turned them over gently & after about 5? minutes I turned the heat down to low as we were eating our salmorejo soup as a first course. & in the end they were indeed piping hot in the centre. (Salsa brava & all-i-oli are off the shelf & good here, so that wasn't a problem.)
When I cook the final two, I'll take photos. & watch the clock! I don't think I put enough spices in the sausage meat; & I know I didn't put in enough white beans for my husband's taste. Thanks for the recipe! It has been a success.
Ah, also, I did not put any egg IN the mashed potato. (I was looking at a couple of Catalan & Spanish recipes as well.) The potato came out amazingly crusty & not burnt at all. I fry in sunflower oil. (I don't like the taste or smell of Canola, & anonymous "vegetable" oils are too mysterious.)
Victoria says
That's great to hear, Amanda! That's what I love about recipes like this, you can follow the basic process but then make tweaks to the filling, etc to make other variations 🙂 I'm glad the frying from frozen worked out for you and that you both got to enjoy the fruits of your labor weeks after the labor LOL. That's what's so great about freezing foods and then getting to enjoy them all over again. Have a great day!
Amanda Adams - says
Thank-you. Yes. They came out fine. & as it took a L O N G time to prrepare them in the first time (ignorance, referring to recipes, &c.); the fact that it takes little time to cook them from the freezer; that they are delicious, & that the NEXT time they will be anxiety-free with regard to cooking time, &c. is a great relief. Now I'll invest the time happily & confidently. Thank-you again, Victoria.
Mark says
Hello Victoria!
OMG, this is wonderful! Followed everything with a few exceptions and will make it again and again!
Suggestions- The recipe calls for making 1/2 cup of garlic oil, only one tablespoon will be used in this recipe. I use 1 tablespoon of oil and three cloves according to directions. I have no use for the rest of the oil, and it was kind of confusing and I wasted oil and garlic until I realized what was needed. Perhaps adjust the recipe for just this.
The other was introducing the paprikas over medium high heat with the flour. Paprika will will burn on high heat and change its flavor. I added it after the broth with the salt and cayenne. Perfect!
Other than those two things, this is the go to for all allioli/bravas sauces. I dont even try others. Yours is the benchmark!
Victoria says
Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe. It always takes me right back to Barcelona when I make it 🙂 You could definitely use less oil for cooking the garlic, but depending on the size of your saucepan you might need more to make sure the cloves are fully submerged. I like to use the leftover garlic oil for sautéing other foods (instead of regular olive oil) or tossing with vegetables or potatoes before roasting them because I love garlic in everything! You could also cool it and use it in vinaigrettes to impart more garlic flavor. Just a couple suggestions for next time.
Jennifer says
Insanely good!! My whole family loved them and now I’m planning to always make extra potatoes so we can have these!
Lara DePietro says
I recommend cova fumada to everyone I know visiting Barcelona! I loved that place but missed these. I have lots of leftovers from the holiday and will give a go of this recipe! How coincidental that it comes from one of my faveorite restaurants in the world!