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A close up image of a piece of pan con tomate near a woman's mouth, about to be eaten.
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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
Total Time5 minutes
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.