Pan con Tomate

Just a few ingredients - ripe tomatoes, sturdy bread, fresh garlic, olive oil, and salt - and a few minutes of straightforward preparation leads to an extraordinary eating experience; at once crisp, soft, juicy, fragrant, sweet, rich, savoury, salty, and umami, truly stunning Pan con Tomate is a legend for a reason.

Pan con tomate, or ‘bread with tomato’, is the Spanish moniker for the original Catalan dish Pa amb tomàquet, a famed preparation that has inspired national devotion since at least the 1800’s, and one that boasts a near 200 page missive devoted to the dish in over 70 variations. I became deeply enamoured with Pan con Tomate as a teenager when I lived in the Spanish Balearic Islands. Widely available and also easy to make at home, its intensely satisfying deliciousness far exceeds the ingredients and efforts required, making it a moreish snack or meal at any time of the day.

An exaltation of the intoxicating essence of in-season tomatoes, the act of making and eating Pan con Tomate is a culinary incantation. Transforming simple elements and harnessing their unique powers into a truly joyous combination of flavours and sensations, Pan con Tomate is the paragon of summer eating.

Ingredients

When thinking of Pan con Tomate I often recall a passage written by a Spanish chef, whose name I regrettably fail to recall, recounting the joys of eating the luscious preparation when he was a child. His mother would serve the hot, freshly made slices to him in the kitchen, to be eaten standing over the kitchen sink and enjoyed with true abandon, without fear of dripping juices running everywhere. While you don’t have to eat over the sink (although I do suggest you try it), you are only 5 ingredients and about 5 minutes away from your own joyous eating experience; all you need is good bread, ripe tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and salt.

Mind you, like many simple foods, the more care taken when choosing the ingredients, the better the results. When choosing your bread, pick something hearty enough; I often use an Italian boule style loaf, and sourdough is also a great choice as it has lots of textural nooks and crannies. It doesn’t matter what shape your bread is, just that it is sturdy enough, once sliced and toasted, to accept the juicy tomato topping without becoming absolutely soaked or falling apart.

Method

The magic begins with sturdy bread, even slightly stale if that is what is available, then toasted or grilled, after which a raw garlic clove is rubbed directly onto the surface, the earthy texture acting as a kind of grater that releases the sharp volatile fragrance of the fresh garlic.

Then, depending on the preparation method of your preference, half a fresh tomato is rubbed directly onto the surface of the bread, pushing the sweet tomato flesh, juices, and seeds into the pockets and hollows of the bread’s surface.

In the first method of preparation, after rubbing the garlic onto the toasted bread, the tomato is "grated" directly onto the bread itself.

All that's left is to add olive oil and salt - Spanish olive oil and flaked sea salt are lovely if you have them, but use what you have!

If you prefer a different method, the raw tomato can be grated separately using a box grater and then spooned and pressed into the bread. Essentially, in both cases, the final touch is lashings of richly mellow olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt to concentrate the flavours.

In the second method of preparation,
the tomato is grated using a box grater.

Once the tomato is grated, the olive oil and the salt can be mixed in, ready for the garlic rubbed, toasted bread.

Notes

When cutting your bread, if it is not pre-sliced, consider that the thinner you cut your bread, the more soaked it will become by tomato juices leading to a softer result, and conversely, the thicker your bread, the more crunch will be retained. I am quite liberal with my toppings when I make Pan con Tomate at home, and so while perhaps overly loading my slices with juicy tomato and olive oil, I make sure to use moderately thick slices of well toasted bread that become soft and succulent with tomato topping while still retaining crispness on the bottom and crunch on the crusty edges.

As for tomatoes, field or vine tomatoes, when in season, that are ripe and juicy have the best flavour, but out of season, I find vine ripened greenhouse tomatoes or ‘brown’ tomatoes work best, as I certainly don’t and cannot restrict myself to eating Pan con Tomate solely in the summertime. A hard tomato will likely be less flavourful and more difficult to grate, either directly onto the bread or when using a grater, and will also lack the necessary juices, so make sure your tomatoes have some tangible give. The trick is also to cut the tomatoes widthwise, that is, in the opposite direction of the stem, as I find that method of cutting is the most conducive way to getting the most flesh, juice and seeds out of the tomato and onto the bread.

Use a freshly peeled garlic clove, whatever olive oil you really like and as much of it as appeals to you, and when salting the final dish, the tiny crunch of flaked sea salt is an added bonus if you have it around.

How to eat Pan con Tomate

Pan con Tomate is at its best when eaten right away after preparation - see recipe notes if preparing for a crowd -  and I’m sure you will agree, at its best when eaten regularly!

Ready for more toasty goodness?

Print Recipe

Pan con Tomate

Just a few ingredients - ripe tomatoes, sturdy bread, fresh garlic, olive oil, and salt - and a few minutes of straightforward preparation leads to an extraordinary eating experience; at once crisp, soft, juicy, fragrant, sweet, rich, savoury, salty, and earthy, truly stunning Pan con Tomate is a legend for a reason.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Total Time5 minutes mins

Servings: 1 slice

Ingredients

• 1 slice sturdy white bread such as a French or Italian boule, or sourdough loaf (substitute with gluten free if needed)
• 1 ripe tomato cut in half horizontally (opposite the stem)
• 1 clove of garlic peeled (raw)
• olive oil to taste
• sea salt to taste

Instructions

• This recipe is for one slice; increase the amounts of each item by the number of slices you wish to prepare.
• Toast or grill your bread until nicely toasted - it’s fine to use slightly stale bread here. While the bread is toasting or grilling, quickly gather your other ingredients - cut the tomato in half horizontally (to best expose the flesh), have olive oil ready to pour and salt ready to sprinkle. There are two methods to prepare the tomato topping.

Method 1

• The first method is to wait until the bread is toasted.

  Once toasted, take your clove of garlic and rub it over the surface - the more you rub, the more garlic flavour is released.

  Then take your tomato half and firmly rub it on the bread surface until you have forced as much tomato flesh into the bread as is possible (I usually use up the entire half tomato per slice).

  Discard the tomato skin.

  Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top of the tomato, then sprinkle with salt. Eat immediately, enjoy, and repeat as desired! (See further notes)

Method 2

• The second method is to prepare the tomato topping first, by grating the fresh tomato on the coarse side of a box grater, set over a bowl, until nothing but the skin is left. Discard the skin. Add a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkle of salt into the tomato mixture and stir briefly.

  Toast or grill your bread slices, take your clove of garlic and rub it over the surface - the more you rub, the more garlic flavour is released.

  Generously spoon the prepared tomato topping onto the bread. Add more lashings of olive oil if you like on top. Eat immediately, enjoy, and repeat as desired!

Notes

For the first preparation method: I find this method is best for small servings, such as for 1 or 2 people, as each slice is prepared individually, and is also well suited for a setting like cooking over an open fire or while camping, as the ingredients are easily transported and nothing needs to be prepared in advance.

For the second preparation method: I find this method is best for larger servings for larger groups of eaters as you can make up as much tomato topping as you like, and if you grill multiple slices of bread on a bbq or under the broiler, you can do a large batch all at once quite quickly.