Perfect Pan Con Tomate 🍅
Breakfast, lunch + dinner -- all summer long.
While I’m conscious this is my fourth tomato recipe in a row, I don’t care, and I don’t plan on stopping.
Today’s recipe is barely a recipe, but it is one of the best bites on earth. Pan con tomate, AKA bread with tomato, a Catalan classic that comes together in under 10 minutes.
If you’ve never had it - I need you to change that today. Ok? Ok.
Before then, let’s run through this week’s faves.
Snack of the week: Pan con tomate - obv - I’ve already had it twice this week & it’s only Tuesday.
Cookbook of the week: I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this one before, but Ina Garten’s How Easy Is That? is a real goodie. The potato salad and snap pea salad are both 10/10s.
Kitchen piece of the week: My OXO box grater with catch container. Perfect for pan con tomate prep.
Perfect Pan Con Tomate 🍅
Summer on toast <3
I had my first pan con tomate in a bar in Barcelona 8 years ago - and I had to make it myself.
I was handed a slice of toasted baguette, a clove of garlic, a halved tomato, a lil olive oil, salt, and was instructed to rub the garlic onto the bread, followed by the tomato. Like I rubbed the tomato into the bread until it was just the skin left, followed by some olive oil and salt - and it was one of the best things we ate on that trip.
How I make pan con tomate is a lil less… rustic - but so, so good. Good enough that I eat it almost once per day, all tomato season long.
Makes two pieces of pan.
Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes
Flaky salt
Olive oil
Two pieces of bread (ciabatta or sourdough)
One garlic clove
Optional garnish: anchovies, chives
Needed: cheese grater, two bowls, a mesh sieve
How to:
Toast or pan fry your bread til golden. Set on a wire rack to cool (not a flat surface or it’ll get soggy).
Grate your tomatoes into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt & stir.
Place a mesh sieve on top of another bowl and scrape in your grated tomatoes.
Leave your tomato water to drain through the sieve for 5 mins, stirring occasionally (this reduces soggyness - but keep your tomato water and add to salad dressings, pasta salads, or drinks).
Add your drained, grated tomatoes to a bowl, add another pinch of flaky salt and a glug of olive oil, stir.
Rub your toasted bread with the garlic clove (I don’t always do this, but sometimes that raw garlic kick hits different) and top with your tomato mixture.
Finish with with a lil drizzle of olive oil and some more flaky salt. Optional, but I sometimes like to top mine with some anchovies and chopped chives for a lil finesse.
I remember having this for breakfast just about every day when we were in Spain. This, plus a freshly squeezed orange juice and a black tea was my go-to and I loved it! There's something so special about the simplicity of it that has never left me, even writing this 8 years later at home in Australia.