Pan con Tomate y Jamón

A Spanish tapas favorite, pan con tomate y jamón is a simple dish of toasted garlicy bread topped with grated tomato and Spanish ham.

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I always say this of Italian cooking, but it’s very much true of Spanish cooking too: a handful of simple but really good quality ingredients can result in an incredibly delicious dish. And this pan con tomate y jamón is truth of that fact. You can make it with literally five ingredients: bread, olive oil, tomato, garlic and of course jamón. It may sound simple, but when you use a really good fruity olive oil, a super fresh and sweet tomato, and some fantastic quality ham, you have a dish that’s super nuanced in just incredibly delicious flavors. Whether you’re longing for another trip to Spain (like I am), looking to impress with a simple but flavorful appetizer, or just trying to use up some stale bread or garden tomatoes, this dish is one that will always satisfy.

Pan con tomate y jamón became my absolute favorite breakfast for the week my fiancé Gabe and I spent in Spain. It is light enough to not weigh you down, yet satisfying enough to fuel you for a long day ahead. And since I started craving it almost as soon as we got back, I decided to make it for myself. While the ingredients here aren’t quite as good as the ones you get in Spain (the jamón especially), it was still super delicious, and a dish I plan on making very often.

A SPAINISH FAVORITE

Pan con tomate originated in the Catalonia region of Spain (where I visited a few years ago), but this dish is popular all over Spain; we saw it in just about every tapas restaurant we went into on our recent trip to Madrid, Seville and Cordoba. At its core, the creation of this dish has a lot to do with something that’s very close to my heart: eliminating food waste. It’s believed that pan con tomate was originally created as a way to use up stale bread. Top stale bread with tomato pulp and it immediately softens, becoming as pillowy as the day it was baked.

Sometimes you’ll find this dish served with jamón (Spanish ham), most preferably jamón serrano or jamón Ibérico (often called the best ham in the world, which in my opinion it most definitely is). I chose to serve mine with ham because it adds and extra layer of salt and smoke. But when you’re using good quality ingredients, you can skip the ham all together and still have an incredible dish. If you did want to serve this dish with ham but couldn’t find the serrano or Ibérico kind, prosciutto works perfectly in its place.

MAKING PAN CON TOMATE

Pan con tomate really couldn’t be easier to make. Some claim that the real traditional way to make this dish is by rubbing the tomato directly onto the bread. That definitely works in some instances; when you have a really nice crusty loaf of bread with a good crumb that will work to actually grate the tomato. But the easier way to do this is by grating the tomato on a box grater. You preserve all that good juice, pulp and flesh, while avoiding the skin of the tomato. And you can store this tomato mixture for a few days to make more pan con tomate later.

There is one thing, however, that you’ll want to rub directly onto that crusty bread, and that’s a garlic clove. Do this while the bread it still hot. The warmth of the bread will cook the garlic ever so slightly, but the sharp, strong taste of the garlic will most definitely come through, balancing the sweet tomato with that garlicy bite.

So weather you’re looking to use up some tomatoes or stale bread, longing for a trip to Spain, or simply want a satisfying snack, I urge you to try pan con tomate. It may sound simple, but if you’re using really good ingredients, it really is one of the most delicious things on the planet.