Spain·Catalonia
Pan con tomate
Tomato bread
Toasted bread rubbed with ripe tomato, olive oil and salt: simple and emblematic of the Mediterranean.
- Preparation
- 10 min
- Cooking
- 5 min
- Total time
- 15 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Servings
- 4
Resting: 0 min
Ingredients
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Preparation
Tips
- Use ripe tomatoes with dense flesh and firm skin: hanging tomatoes are the traditional choice.
- Mind the order: first garlic, then tomato, then salt, and finally the oil.
- If the tomato is very watery, let it drain a few minutes or remove some of the seeds.
Variations
- In Mallorca, pa amb oli is made with ramellet tomatoes, a small variety with a more intense flavour.
- It can be served untoasted, or prepared at the table by each diner.
Story of the recipe
Pan con tomate: where it comes from.
Pan con tomate (pa amb tomàquet in Catalan) is identified above all with Catalonia, but it is also eaten in the Balearic Islands, Valencia and other Mediterranean areas. Its origin is debated: the chef Josep Lladonosa maintains there is documentation from the 18th century, while the historian Nèstor Luján places the first written reference in 1884.
According to Luján, the recipe was born in the countryside as a way to use hard, dry bread when tomatoes were plentiful. The hanging tomato was a variety kept hung in bunches to last through winter.
Sources
By RecetarioMundo.