Spanish recipe

Pan con Tomate (Pa amb Tomàquet)

Name: Pan con Tomate (Pa amb Tomàquet)
Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 16 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Spanish cuisine
Ingredients: 320 g rustic country bread, cut into four thick slices; 500 g very ripe tomatoes; 1 clove garlic, peeled and halved; 40 ml extra-virgin olive oil; 4 g coarse sea salt

Catalonia’s tomato bread is deliberately simple: sturdy bread toasted until crisp, lightly rubbed with raw garlic, then covered with very ripe grated tomato, extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt. It must be assembled just before eating so the toast remains crisp under the juice.

Catalonia, Spain

Prep: 8 min
Cook: 8 min
Total: 16 min
Servings: 4

Catalan tomato bread with juicy grated tomato, olive oil and sea salt — **Real finished-dish photograph**Photograph by Jennifer Woodard MaderazoSource page · Original file · CC BY 2.0Cropped, resized, and compressed by Recipe Nest Vault.

Ingredients

320 g
rustic country bread, cut into four thick slices
500 g
very ripe tomatoes
1 clove
garlic, peeled and halved
40 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
4 g
coarse sea salt

Method

01
Grate the ripe tomatoes
Cut the tomatoes across their equators. Grate the cut faces on the large holes of a box grater into a bowl, stopping at the skin; discard the skins. You should have roughly 350–400 g of loose, juicy tomato pulp.
Cooking-step illustration, not a photograph
02
Toast the bread deeply
Heat the oven to 250°C or use a hot grill. Toast the bread for 6–8 minutes, turning once if needed, until the cut surfaces are dry, crisp and distinctly golden while the centre remains chewy.
Cooking-step illustration, not a photograph
03
Rub with garlic and olive oil
While the toast is hot, rub each cut surface lightly with the halved garlic, using about one pass across the bread rather than grinding the clove into it. Drizzle about half the olive oil over the four slices.
Cooking-step illustration, not a photograph
04
Top and serve immediately
Spoon about 90 g grated tomato over each toast, spreading to the edges without soaking the underside. Drizzle the remaining olive oil, divide the 4 g sea salt over the tops and serve within 5 minutes while the bread is still crisp.
Cooking-step illustration, not a photograph

Practical notes

Tips

Use very ripe tomatoes and sturdy bread; with so few ingredients, quality and texture are the whole dish.
Top the toast immediately before serving so tomato juice flavours the bread without making it soggy.

Common mistakes

Pale, soft toast cannot support the tomato; toast until the cut surface is dry and distinctly golden.
Too much raw garlic dominates the tomato; rub the toasted surface lightly and taste before adding more.

Substitutions

Use another rustic, open-crumb bread that can toast firmly if Catalan country bread is unavailable.
Any flavourful extra-virgin olive oil can replace a Spanish oil; avoid neutral refined oil in this uncooked finish.

Storage

Store unused grated tomato covered at 0–4°C for up to 2 days. Keep bread separate at room temperature and toast fresh; assembled pan con tomate does not store well because the bread becomes soggy.

Cultural context

In Catalonia this dish is pa amb tomàquet. Traditional versions may rub a halved ripe tomato directly onto the bread; grating the tomato first is another common approach that gives more even coverage.

Sources and photo credit

This standardized method was independently rewritten after cross-checking the references below. Recipe Nest Vault does not claim that the credited photographer cooked from this exact version.

Recipe references

Pa amb tomaquet — Photograph by Jennifer Woodard Maderazo; CC BY 2.0.

Step illustrations: Original illustrations created by Recipe Nest Vault with OpenAI image_gen.

Back to Spanish recipes

Pan con Tomate (Pa amb Tomàquet)

Ingredients

Method

Grate the ripe tomatoes

Toast the bread deeply

Rub with garlic and olive oil

Top and serve immediately

Sources and photo credit

Recipe references

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