The third year of my degree at University was a year abroad, and I was fortunate enough to go to an area in Catalunya called Lleida. I admit it wasn’t my first choice and when I found out that I was allocated to language school in this place that I had never heard of, I wasn’t all that happy. The only places I knew of in Spain were the Spanish capital, Madrid, and Barcelona, the Catalonian capital.
During this 8 month period, I was exposed to a lot of new foods which included caragols (snails) and pa amb tomàquet, which is what I am going to introduce you to today.
So as you will see in the picture above, it’s just bread. A tomato, or two. Some olive oil. And some salt. Now the bread doesn’t have to be toasted, as shown in the image, but if you have bread which is a little on the stale side then it’s probably best if you do try and save the bread by giving it a little toast.
The tomato bread process it easy, and I was not aware of this big tradition until I was invited round to a pre-Christmas dinner at the house of one of my English student’s where they showed me this Catalonian culinary delight.
1 – slice the tomato in half and rub the seedy fleshy side on to the bread. Squeeze as much of the flesh onto the bread as possible.
2 – drizzle a little olive oil on top of the tomatoey bread
3 – sprinkle a little salt (sea salt works best in my opinion)
4 – devour.
You can also add a little garlic to the pa amb tomaquet, if you fancy, which gives it a nice little heat
Last year when we went on holiday to Barcelona, we found a nice place to have lunch thanks to our friend Trip(Advisor). Much to my delight, they offered tomato bread as a side order which I, obviously, ordered. I loved the presentation of it, which you will see below, and it reminded me of how much I loved to eat this on a daily basis. The tomato on bread process (along with the olive oil and salt) in a nice and healthy alternative to butter on your sandwiches (which is also something else that I used to do on my year abroad!).
Enjoy this little Catalonian nugget whilst I go off and make myself some pa amb tomàquet! #franrecommends
Let me know what you think guys!
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