Pan con tomate
Five ingredients and nowhere to hide — which is why this dish shows up the quality of what you buy so mercilessly. The technique is the point: the tomato is neither sliced nor blended but rubbed into the bread, until only the skin is left in your hand. The rough toasted surface works as a grater, and the pulp goes into the crumb rather than sitting on top of it.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Toasting the bread 6 min
- Rubbing the tomato 4 min
- Serving 2 min
Step by step
0 / 4 doneToast the bread dry until it is rough
Toast the thick slices on a very hot griddle pan (about 3 minutes per side) or in a toaster until the surface is hard and abrasive, with dark marks. The point is not the charred flavour but the texture — a smooth slice will not grate the tomato, it will go soggy under it.
Ingredients: 4 pcs country bread · 3 pcs tomatoes · 1 clove garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp sea salt
A hard, rough surface — it replaces the grater.Rub with garlic while the bread is hot
Halve the clove and drag it across the hot slice once or twice, no more. A hot surface grates garlic very efficiently, and four passes give a flavour that overpowers both tomato and oil.
Ingredients: 4 pcs country bread · 3 pcs tomatoes · 1 clove garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp sea salt
Two passes are enough — garlic is easy to overdo.Rub the tomato until only skin remains
Halve a tomato and rub the cut side hard against the bread, until the pulp disappears into the crumb and an empty skin is left in your hand. The slice should be visibly red and moist, but not dripping.
Ingredients: 4 pcs country bread · 3 pcs tomatoes · 1 clove garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp sea salt
Only the skin is left — that is how much pulp goes in.Oil and salt at the table
Pour over the oil generously and scatter salt flakes immediately before serving. Salt added earlier draws water out of the tomato and the slice goes soft within minutes — the easiest way to ruin this dish.
Ingredients: 4 pcs country bread · 3 pcs tomatoes · 1 clove garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp sea salt
Before you start
Day-old bread is better
Fresh bread carries too much of its own moisture and softens under the tomato. A slice from yesterday's loaf is drier, takes up more and stays crisp longer.
The variety of tomato
In Catalonia they use small, very ripe tomàquet de penjar with soft flesh. Out of season no firm tomato works — better to eat something else than to make this with winter tomatoes.
What to put on top
Classically: serrano ham, anchovies, manchego or nothing at all. If you add anything, add one thing only — this dish lives on simplicity, not on quantity.
