Starters

Pan con Tomate

Pan con tomate is not a recipe — it is a technique, a ritual, and an argument about what simplicity actually means. Done correctly, with good bread, ripe tomatoes, and olive oil worth using raw, it requires nothing else. Done badly, it tastes of nothing. The olive oil is everything here.

Made with La Piedra del Molino extra virgin olive oil

Prep

10 min

Cook

0 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Easy

Ingredients

Wherever olive oil is listed, use ours — La Piedra del Molino, cold-pressed at Cortijo El Marqués.

• 4 thick slices of sourdough or pa de pagès (country bread)
• 2 very ripe tomatoes, halved
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• La Piedra del Molino extra virgin olive oil — generous
• Flaked sea salt

Method

1. 1

   Toast or grill the bread until golden and charred at the edges. It should have structure — not soft.

2. 2

   While still warm, rub the cut garlic clove firmly over one side of each slice. The bread's rough surface will grate the garlic into the bread. One clove for four slices is enough.

3. 3

   Take a tomato half and rub it vigorously over the garlicked side, pressing so the juice and pulp soak into the bread. Discard the skin. Repeat with the remaining slices.

4. 4

   Pour — do not drizzle — a generous amount of olive oil over each slice. This is not a garnish. The olive oil is the point.

5. 5

   Finish with flaked salt. Eat immediately.