Spanish Cuisine #2: Pan con Tomate

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Despite having described a recipe with similar ingredients at #1, I could not help illustrating one of the most typical dishes, if not the dish par excellence of the Catalan cuisine. The Catalan name for "pan con tomate" or "pan tumaca" is "pa amb tomàquet", and both simply mean "bread with tomato". At first sight, this dish which may seem trivial and even dull, has a long history and a symbolic intrinsic value.

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Its preparation, in fact, is very simple, and this is probably one of the reason for its success. Quite similarly, the ingredients are very cheap and common, resulting in a recipe almost ready-made and accessible to everybody. Indeed, you will need only some bread (preferably of the baguette-type), some ripe tomatoes, oil and salt. No matter if the bread is a bit stale: pan con tomate was probably conceived exactly as a way to avoid throwing stale bread.

The preparation is pretty simple: having cut the baguette in two halves, you will just have to rub half tomato on the bread. Normally, half a tomato will be enough for a short baguette, while you will need a whole tomato for a long one. In any case, keep rubbing until the bread will have that reddish colour you can see in the picture above. Once done this, you will only have to put some oil and some salt on the bread, before cutting it into shorter slices. Easy, isn't it? Following other versions of the preparation, it is possible to toast the bread before rubbing it with the tomato, while some recipes prescribe the use of garlic together with the other ingredients.

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Though it could be eaten alone as well, people usually add more consistent food, such as cold meats, cheese, olives or even trout or other kinds of fish. As for its collocation in the meals, it is very difficult to define this dish: if on the one hand it would be natural to include it among the starters, on the other hand many people have it as a snack at any hour, even for breakfast. Depending on the quantity and the consistence of the complement, it can also be considered a meal of his own.

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Pa amb tomàquet is probably the most representative dish of the Catalan cuisine, though it is also very popular in Aragón, Valencia and Baleares, where it is known as pa amb oli (bred with oil). The first written recipe dates back to 1884, but its origins are surely older. With all likelihood, the dish was considered just too trivial to be written down in a recipe. It is prepared with some of the typical ingredients of the Mediterranean diet, and has indeed an Italian equivalent (the so-called bruschetta). The main difference lies right in the use of tomato in the Catalan version, which allows to soften the bread thanks to the sauce made with oil and tomato juice. According to some, that was probably the idea which lies at the origins of the dish: the necessity of making edible the stale bread which otherwise would have been thrown away.

Ingredients: Bread (preferably baguette-like), some ripe tomatoes, oil, salt

Time for preparation: 5 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Cooking: None

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