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Of all the things I put together for our little cinco de mayo dinner party this weekend, the pan con tomate was one of the favorites! For good reason – the bread is perfectly crunchy without hurting your mouth, the tomatoes are bringing in tomato season, and salty, savory, the olive oil is velvety. Highly recommend. We may or may not have had these two days in a row!

It’s pretty simple to make. I recommend making the tomato mixture ahead and letting it hang out in the fridge for a few hours. Bring it to room temp before serving. You can also make it and enjoy right away, but those flavors really do develop after a bit of time.

I always laugh when Ina says “use the good olive oil!” – like, why are we contemplating anything other than good olive oil? But truly in a simple dish like this, a good quality olive oil is important. I’m a big fan of Graza Drizzle finishing oil – the price is solid and the quality is really wonderful – very flavorful. I get mine at Whole Foods!

Pan con Tomate

Perfect idea for a quick and easy appetizer or side dish.

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Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Servings 12 toasts

Ingredients

  

Toasts

• 12 slices ciabatta bread, about 1" thick
• 6 tbsp butter (or more based on your preference)
• salt, to taste

Tomato Mixture

• 1 large beefsteak tomato
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1-2 tbsp salt, or more, to taste
• 1 pinch pepper, or more, to taste
• 1 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish (optional)
• finishing salt, like maldon, for garnish, optional

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with foil and oil spray.
• Slice ciabatta and spread 1/2 tbsp of butter on each side (or more. to be honest, I just eyeballed it all).
• Pop bread into the oven for about 20 minutes, or until bread reaches desired color (I wanted to get that rich, golden color throughout the whole toast).
• While the bread is in the oven, slice the bottom of your tomato and grate it against a box grater into a bowl.
• Once done, microplane one large garlic clove into the mixture.
• Add the olive oil, salt, pepper and stir well to combine. Taste for salt and pepper.
• Top each piece of bread with about a tbsp of the tomato mixture, top with some crunchy salt and a little more olive oil for garnish.
• See notes about making this ahead.

Notes

If you want to make this ahead, assemble the tomato mixture the day or a few hours before and cover and place in the fridge. The tomato mixture gets more flavorful the longer it sits. 

You’ll want your tomato mixture to be room temperature, so remove from the fridge when you start heating up the bread. Once the bread is done, top with your now room-temp tomato mixture and a dash more olive oil. Enjoy!