Spanish omelette tortilla") to be eaten as a finger food. The first reference to the tortilla in Spanish is found in a Navarrese document, as an anonymous "Mousehole's memorial" addressed to the Navarra region's court in 1817. It explains the sparse conditions of Navarre's farmers in contrast with those in Pamplona (the capital) and la Ribera (in southern Navarre). After listing the sparse food eaten by highlanders, the next quote follows: "…two to three eggs in tortilla for 5 or 6 [people] as our women do know how to make it big and thick with less eggs, mixing potatoes, breadcrumbs or whatever."
Omelette during the mid-16th century, but the versions "alumelle" and "alumete" are employed by the Ménagier de Paris (II, 5) in 1393. Rabelais ("Pantagruel", IV, 9) mentions an "homelaicte d'oeufs", Olivier de Serres an "amelette", François Pierre La Varenne's "Le cuisinier françois" (1651) has "aumelette", and the modern "omelette" appears in "Cuisine bourgoise" (1784). According to the founding legend of the annual giant Easter omelette of Bessières, Haute-Garonne, when Napoleon Bonaparte and his army were traveling through southern France, they decided to rest for the night near the town of Bessières. Napoleon feasted on an omelette prepared by a local innkeeper,