Spanish Tomato Bread (Pan Con Tomate)

After a two week vacation in Barcelona I’m sharing a taste of Spain with this easy appetizer. It’s a rustic dish that pairs crunchy toasted bread with fresh juicy tomatoes, and it’s literally served everywhere in the city.

Think of this as the Spanish version of Italian bruschetta, and serve it for a tapas and sangria gathering, a weekly happy hour, or as a side item for soup or pasta.

While using the most seasonal and ripe tomatoes is important, the real trick to making this appetizer its best, is in the bread preparation. I’m sharing my unique tip for keeping it crisp, below.

Ingredient Notes

• Bread. You’ll need a long loaf of crusty bread with holes and nooks inside. It can be a ciabatta loaf, an Italian loaf, French loaf, or whatever artisanal bread the bakery section has on hand. The key is that it’s oblong in shape. I don’t recommend using a French baguette as it is too small in diameter for making this.
• Tomatoes. If it’s tomato season, you’re in luck! Choose a few fresh heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market for the best flavor. Otherwise, I like vine-ripened tomatoes or Roma tomatoes, or a combo of the two.
• Seasoning. You should have 3 ingredients available to finish the dish: coarse kosher salt, garlic cloves, and good extra virgin olive oil (Spanish olive oil if you want to stay on theme).

Tips and Tricks

When we ate this in Barcelona we kept saying how delicious and crunchy the bread was, and agreed that was what made the dish so special.

1. Here’s the secret: before you toast the bread slices, pinch out the soft center of each slice. That will insure you get a totally crisp vessel that stands up to the tomato liquid and mimics what we had in Barcelona. It also means the tomato liquid isn’t going to make the bread soggy after a few minutes, so you can actually make a platter of these to serve.

2. While you can certainly use a box grater to grate the tomatoes, I often use a citrus reamer. That way I don’t get any of the tough skin mixed in with the pulp, plus there’s no worries of accidentally grating my knuckles. Admittedly you will extract the most pulp using a grater, but just know you have options.

Keep in mind the amount of tomato topping you get is directly related to the number and size of the tomatoes you use. Use more than you think you need because it can go quickly!

3. When it comes to entertaining I typically go light on the garlic since it can be overwhelming in certain applications. I suggest using a light touch when rubbing the garlic clove over the bread. That way your guests won’t be afraid to talk face to face. I’ve even made this several times without the garlic and don’t really miss it.

Serving Suggestions

As I mention above, pan con tomate was served practically everywhere we ate, and it was served in 3 different ways. I’m covering each one below so you can make your choice depending on what works for your occasion.

Prepared platter. Our very first “meal” in Spain was an appetizer platter with prepared tomato bread, Iberico ham slices, potatoes bravas, and a glass of Spanish wine. You can serve it this way at home so guests can simply grab and eat.

Bowl. Our hotel served this on the breakfast buffet, in a bowl, which makes a lot of sense for a home get-together too. For this you simply add all the tomato pulp to a bowl with a spoon, and a dish of toasted bread on the side. Guests can rub their bread slice with garlic, and top it with the tomato, coarse salt, and olive oil.

DIY tomato rub. One restaurant simply served the ingredients on the table before the main course. There were 2 tomatoes, a plate of prepared bread, garlic cloves, salt and olive oil. For this you simply cut the tomato in half across the center; rub the garlic clove over the top of the bread, and then rub and squeeze the cut side of the tomato over the bread extracting as much pulp as desired.

One of my favorite things about travel is bringing home the experiences to share with friends and family. Tomato bread is the perfect recipe for that. Enjoy it with other Spanish foods such as thin slices of Iberico ham, Manchego cheese, Marcona almonds, Spanish olives, and potatoes bravas.

Serve as a light snack with cheese crisps and call it happy hour!