Pan con Tomate, Properly: The Five-Ingredient Catalan Toast and Everything That Belongs on It
Pan con tomate has four ingredients, takes three minutes, and has caused more arguments in Spanish kitchens than any dish with a recipe. Catalans, who invented it and call it pa amb tomàquet, rub a halved tomato directly onto toasted bread. Madrid and most of the rest of the country grate the tomato into a pulp and spoon it on. Some people add garlic. Some consider garlic a crime against the tomato. Everyone agrees on the olive oil and the salt, and everyone agrees that it is the best thing you can eat at eleven in the morning with a coffee, or at one with a glass of something during the vermut hour.
Here is the Catalan method, the reasons behind each choice, and what to put on top once you have it right.
Why it works
The dish is a study in contrast. Hot, dry, crackly toast meets cold, wet, acidic tomato; the tomato's water softens the surface of the bread while the inside stays crisp; the olive oil adds fat and fruit and carries the tomato's flavor across the whole slice; the salt makes all of it taste like more of itself. Nothing is cooked except the bread. That is why the quality of each ingredient is exposed: a mealy winter tomato, a bland oil or a soft sandwich loaf cannot hide.
The four ingredients, and why each matters
Bread. A rustic, open-crumbed country loaf with a real crust: a pa de pagès in Catalonia, a sourdough boule or a ciabatta here. Cut it thick, about three-quarters of an inch, so the surface can take the tomato and the inside can stay chewy. Never a soft sandwich loaf, which turns to paste. Day-old bread is better than fresh; it toasts drier.
Tomato. Ripe, juicy and in season. Catalans use a small, thin-skinned variety grown for hanging and keeping, the tomàquet de penjar, but any ripe summer tomato works, and a very ripe beefsteak or a handful of cherry tomatoes is the American answer. In winter, grate rather than rub; grating gets more out of a lesser tomato. Never use canned tomato. Never use tomato sauce.
Olive oil. This is the ingredient that decides whether the toast is good or great, and it is the one to spend on. You want an extra virgin oil with fruit and a little pepper: a Catalan Arbequina is the traditional choice, mild and buttery, and a punchier Spanish Picual or a green Tuscan oil is also excellent. Our olive oil buying guide explains how to choose, and the olive oil shelf has the bottles. Be generous. A dry pan con tomate is a failure.
Salt. Flaky, so that the crystals land on the surface and dissolve slowly against the tomato. A pinch of the kind in our finishing salt guide is exactly right; fine table salt disappears into the tomato water and over-salts.
Garlic, the disputed fifth. If you use it, rub a halved raw clove lightly over the hot toast before the tomato, so it perfumes the bread without dominating it. Purists in Barcelona skip it for breakfast and allow it at night. We rub once, lightly, and let people who object make their own.
The recipe
For four people as a snack or a starter.
- 4 thick slices of rustic country bread
- 2 very ripe tomatoes, halved across the equator
- 1 garlic clove, halved, optional
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or more
- Flaky sea salt
- Toast the bread hard. A grill or a very hot skillet gives the best result; a toaster on its highest setting is fine. You want a crisp, browned surface and a few char marks, with the center still soft.
- While the toast is hot, rub the cut garlic clove over one side, once, if using.
- Take a tomato half and rub its cut face firmly over the toast, pressing and dragging so the flesh and juice go into the bread and the skin stays in your hand. Use half a tomato per slice; the bread should be evenly pink and wet, with a few bits of flesh. Discard the skin.
- Pour olive oil over each slice, about a tablespoon, in a thin stream so it spreads. More is correct.
- Scatter flaky salt over the top. Eat within a minute or two, while the contrast between crisp and wet is at its best.
The grated method, for winter tomatoes or a crowd: grate the tomatoes on the coarse side of a box grater into a bowl, discard the skins, season the pulp with salt and a splash of oil, and spoon it onto the toast. It is wetter and more uniform, and it keeps for an hour, which the rubbed version does not.
What to put on top
Plain is the Catalan breakfast. With something on top, it becomes lunch, a tapa or the first course of a dinner. In rough order of tradition:
Jamón. The classic. Two or three slices of jamón ibérico draped, not stacked, over the tomato while the toast is still warm, so the fat starts to melt. Our jamón guide explains why the fat matters and why the slices must be at room temperature first. Serrano works for a weeknight; ibérico for a Sunday.
Anchovies. Three oil-packed fillets from a good tin, laid across the slice, with no extra salt. Cantabrian anchovies are the reference, and our anchovy guide covers what to buy. This is the version that converts anchovy skeptics.
Sardines or mackerel. A whole tinned sardine, split and laid skin up, or flaked mackerel with a squeeze of lemon. Anything from our tinned fish shelf that is packed in oil.
Cheese. Shavings of Manchego or an aged sheep's cheese; the tomato's acid against the cheese's salt is the whole point.
Olives. A few chopped green olives scattered over, or an anchovy-stuffed Manzanilla on a pick beside each slice.
An egg. A fried egg with a runny yolk on top of the tomato bread, with a little hot sauce, is not traditional and is very good.
Mistakes to avoid
Under-toasting, which gives soggy bread. Under-oiling, which gives dry toast. Cold jamón, which tastes waxy. A tomato that is not ripe; if it is pale inside, make something else. Rubbing the tomato onto cold toast, which does not absorb. And making it ahead: pan con tomate is assembled at the last second and eaten standing up, which is how it was meant to be.
The olive oil, salt, jamón, anchovies and olives are all at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com. The tomato and the bread are your job. Get good ones.
