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Pan Con Tomate
Serves 4 Prep 5 min Cook 4 min Total 9 min Type Side Origin Spanish

Pan Con Tomate

Catalonia's defining starter: toasted country bread rubbed with raw garlic and a halved ripe tomato, drizzled with good olive oil and salt.

Serves 4 Prep 5 minutes Cook 4 minutes Units Rate

Overview

Country bread (sourdough or pan rústico) slices 1 ½ cm thick. Toasts in a hot oven, on a griddle, or under a grill until pale gold and crisp on the outside but still tender inside. Garlic clove halves; cut sides rub gently over the warm toast. Ripe tomatoes halve; cut sides rub harder, pressing tomato pulp into the bread until soaked. Olive oil drizzles; flaky salt sprinkles. Eat at once.

Ingredients

  • 4 thick slices country sourdough (about 1 ½ cm thick)
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled, halved)
  • 2 ripe tomatoes (the ripest you can find - vine-ripened, ideally)
  • 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (the best you have)
  • Flaky sea salt

Method

Stage 1 - Toast the bread

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C (or use a hot grill / griddle pan).
  2. Lay the bread slices on a tray; toast 3-4 minutes until pale gold on the surface, still a little tender inside.
  3. The bread should be crisp on the surface but not dry and crackery throughout.

Stage 2 - Garlic rub

  1. While the toast is still warm, take a cut garlic clove and rub the cut side gently over the surface of the bread.
  2. The garlic essence transfers to the toast; you'll see the cut clove shrink as it grates against the crisp surface.
  3. One pass per slice is plenty; more is overpowering.

Stage 3 - Tomato rub

  1. Halve the tomatoes crossways.
  2. Take a tomato half by the skin; press the cut side firmly into the toast.
  3. Rub vigorously back and forth; the pulp and juice transfer to the bread; you should be left holding just the skin.
  4. ½ tomato per slice.

Stage 4 - Oil and salt

  1. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil generously over each slice (be generous - this is a oil-heavy dish).
  2. Sprinkle flaky sea salt over each.

Stage 5 - Serve

  1. Eat immediately, alongside ham, cheese, anchovies, or as part of any tapas spread.

Notes

  • Tomato quality is the dish: out-of-season pale tomatoes give bland pan con tomate. Use the ripest, juiciest, vine-perfumed tomatoes you can find. Heritage varieties shine.
  • Crusty bread, not soft sandwich bread: the rough open crumb of a country sourdough catches the tomato pulp. Soft white slices turn to mush.
  • Rub, don't spread: the tomato is grated into the bread by the friction of the crusty surface. Don't slice and lay on top - that's bruschetta, not pan con tomate.
  • Olive oil is the seasoning: Spaniards use a lot. Don't be shy.

Storage

  • Eats immediately or not at all.
  • Bread continues absorbing tomato; after 20 minutes the slice is soggy.
  • Toasted bread (without the rub) keeps an hour; assemble at the last second.

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Chile's table salsa, the fresh chunky relish that turns up in a small bowl next to bread before any meal and stays on the table until everything is gone. You chop tomato, onion and coriander fine (smaller than a chopped salad, almost a relish), then combine with crushed garlic, ají chilli (or red chilli if ají isn't around), olive oil, vinegar or lemon, salt and pepper. Fold gently and let sit for ten minutes so the flavours mingle. Eaten with fresh bread before a meal, spooned over grilled meat, alongside empanadas, with chorrillana, with cazuela. Basically with anything savoury that comes out of a Chilean kitchen.

Sides 12 minutes Serves6