Pa amb tomàquet
Catalan bread rubbed with garlic and ripe tomato, finished with olive oil and salt. Comes with almost every meal.
Pa amb tomàquet is the staple of the Catalan table. A slice of country bread, sometimes toasted, gets a quick rub with a cut garlic clove, then a halved ripe tomato pressed across the crumb until the pulp soaks in. Olive oil and salt finish it. It shows up under charcuterie, beside grilled fish, alongside a vermut, or just on its own with breakfast. Skip it and you've eaten the wrong way through Catalonia.
How it's served
Restaurants usually arrive with it pre-prepared on toast. The home version often comes deconstructed: bread, half a tomato, garlic, oil and a salt cellar, and you build your own.
Regional variation
Castilian Spain has its own version, pan con tomate, more often made with grated tomato spooned onto the bread. The Catalan version is rubbed by hand and treats the pulp as the dressing, not the topping.
- Origin
- Catalonia, Spain
- Etymology
- Catalan for 'bread with tomato'.
- Also called
- pan con tomate
Where to try it in Barcelona
One restaurant on Guidavera mentions pa amb tomàquet in their kitchen description.
Frequently asked
What's the difference between pa amb tomàquet and pan con tomate?
Pa amb tomàquet is rubbed: a halved tomato pressed across bread until the pulp soaks in. Pan con tomate, more common in Castilian Spain, usually uses grated tomato spooned on top. Catalans treat the distinction seriously.
Should the bread be toasted?
Restaurants almost always toast it, because toasted bread holds up to the tomato. Catalan homes are split: some prefer the softer un-toasted version, especially with charcuterie. Both are correct.
What goes on top of pa amb tomàquet?
Jamón, anchovies, cured cheeses, butifarra, tinned fish, escalivada. It's the base layer the rest of the Catalan table builds on, more often a side than a centrepiece.
Related terms
- AllioliPungent Catalan emulsion of garlic and olive oil. Traditionally no egg. Eaten with grilled meats, paella and fish.
- ButifarraThe Catalan family of pork sausages: fresh ones grilled over coals, cured blood-based ones, and a sweet lemon-and-sugar oddity from the Empordà.
- EscalivadaCatalan smoky vegetables: aubergine, red pepper, sometimes onion and tomato, all roasted whole, peeled and dressed with olive oil.
- AnxovesCured anchovies, packed in salt or olive oil. The two great Spanish traditions are anxoves de l'Escala (Catalan) and anchoas del Cantábrico (Basque/Cantabrian).
- CalçotA long, sweet spring onion from Catalonia, charred whole over vine wood and dipped in romesco.
- Coca mallorquinaMallorcan flatbread, savoury or sweet. The savoury coca de trampó tops it with summer vegetables; the sweet coca de patata is brioche-light, dusted with powdered sugar.
- EnsaïmadaSpiral-shaped Mallorcan pastry made with pork lard (saïm), dusted with powdered sugar. Plain or filled with cabello de ángel, cream or chocolate.
- EsqueixadaA cold Catalan summer salad of shredded raw salt cod with tomato, onion, peppers and olives. Never cooked.
- FuetLong, thin Catalan dry-cured pork sausage with a powdery white mould on the outside. Eaten in slices as a snack or tapa.
- Jamón ibéricoCured ham from the black-hooved Iberian pig. The top grade, jamón ibérico de bellota, comes from pigs fed on acorns in the dehesa.
- SobrasadaMallorcan cured pork sausage that's spreadable rather than sliceable: soft, paprika-red, eaten on bread or stirred into sauces.