X-ray of pa amb tomàquet: sacrileges, detractors and the origin of this traditional Catalan dish

Pa amb tomàquet is intrinsically linked to Catalan identity, and we probably wouldn't find any other food that identifies us so emotionally in such a clear way. The slice of bread rubbed with tomato, then salted and finally drizzled with extra virgin olive oil is a (universal) symbol of Catalans, but there are those who don't like it, who don't eat it, who only see disadvantages in it, and who, despite all this, are also Catalan, of course. These latter are the ones who, when they order a sandwich or slices of bread, ask please for the bread to be only with olive oil. You'll hear them mention it a few times, because they know that, in our home, by inertia, the bread will be with tomato. The novelty is that, over the years, another group of people has joined this last group, who maintain that currently barbarities and sacrileges are being committed with a dish that, in theory, is very simple to prepare, and which has an economic cost.Sacrileges or barbarities are multiple: grated tomato with a grater on top of the slice of bread; tomato sauce obtained after crushing the tomatoes, skins included, and spread on the bread with a brush; acidity of the food due to the use of tomatoes that are not ripe, red, or shiny. To all this we can add that the food has not managed to become universal, even though there are Catalan chefs who have opened restaurants around the world and have put it on the menu. The missed Montse Guillén did it at her restaurant in New York, and so does the Catalan Clos family at the hotel they have in London and Madrid, where at the breakfast buffet they serve bread with tomato, and made in an orthodox way and, therefore, good. We cite only two examples; surely there are more, but they have not amplified the food to be a Catalan icon in the world. Thus, when we travel, we don't need to try to explain how to make bread with tomato because it will be difficult for us to succeed: at most we will be able to get them to give us the tomato cut into slices between the bread, which must be said is the way bread with tomato is eaten on the islands of Mallorca and Ibiza.Indignation as the Italians do

At the Semproniana restaurant, chef Ada Parellada assures that "without bread with tomato" she would die, because for her "food is home, comfort". She thinks it's very good that "people get indignant if it's done badly", just like Italians do with their dishes, who, when they are not prepared in an orthodox way, cry out to the heavens. "If we get indignant about bad bread with tomato, we don't let ourselves be walked over, and perhaps there are few dishes that make us indignant when they are poorly prepared". When should we say no to bread with tomato? When it is pureed, the sauce is placed in a bowl, and they dip a brush in the sauce to put it on top of sliced bread. "And let them do it in front of us, defying our eyes; this is when I celebrate people getting angry". And it is so because the chef maintains that it doesn't cost that much, because there are four ingredients: bread, tomato, salt and olive oil, and because "we have good products". In fact, the hanging tomato itself "is technologically manipulated so that it has good skin, to be picked like tweezers, and good pulp, so that it detaches onto the bread when we dip it", says Parellada, who adds that she understands the restaurant business, that when working in large volumes, it might be faster to have the tomato pureed beforehand to dip it. "I understand, but I repeat that it's easy to prepare it when they ask us for bread with tomato". To all this, she only has one more nuance to add: "if the tomato is ripe it won't be acidic, and you also have to be very picky because those of us who eat it habitually have the taste very integrated". Meanwhile, at the Trü restaurant in Barcelona (Còrsega street, 232) the slice of bread with tomato is prepared by the chefs with ceremony and passion. You will see the hanging tomato from the table or the bar where you eat; the chefs take one while toasting the slice of bread in front of you. Then they rub the tomato on it, add salt, and pour a drizzle of oil. Chef Artur Martínez and his entire team show that there is hope when it comes to eating very good ones.On the other hand, to understand how a slice of bread with tomato has become a symbol of a people's identity, we must go back centuries, but not too far back. The tomato arrived from America with the Spanish conquerors, and when it reached the country, it didn't arouse passions, quite the opposite: that intense red color could only be a sign of the devil, it was believed. The 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries passed, and it wasn't until 1884 that a Catalan writer, Pompeu Gener (whom the best-selling author David Uclés confesses he would have liked to meet) mentioned the food in a writing. The one who explained Pompeu Gener's reference for the first time was Néstor Luján, who wrote it down in a newspaper article a century later, in 1984. A year later, the artist Leopoldo Pomés wrote it down in the most complete and original book about bread with tomato, Theory and practice of bread with tomato, stating that the oldest reference was from 1884. And since then, we have relied on this data, which is difficult to verify in Pompeu Gener's work, or at least, we must confess that we haven't managed to. The phrase that the journalist and writer Néstor Luján said was the first written literary reference to bread with tomato was the following: "What we ate one night is bread with oil seasoned with tomato".In any case, Leopoldo Pomés maintained in his book that the orthodox way of preparing it was with country bread, spread on both sides with the "red and substantial varnish", then salted and, finally, drizzled with olive oil. The order of the ingredients, basic, because if the salt was placed after the olive oil, it would then slide off. On the contrary, if the salt is put on before the olive oil, it sticks to the bread. For the food not to be acidic – one of the criticisms of anti-bread with tomato – the important thing is the ripeness of the tomato and also that the maximum acidity limit of olive oil is 0.4. "You don't need to rub the tomato hard either; the spread should not be excessive", because spreading bread with tomato is not like putting jam on it. "The exact point is what gives a red tint", said Pomés, who also theorized about the centimeters of distance needed when putting olive oil on the slice: 10. And above all, you should not put skins on it, the skins of the tomatoes, which are only useful for handling, for picking them up with your fingers and rubbing them on the bread.Beyond the orthodox recipe, let's remember: with both sides spread, Leopoldo Pomés also revealed a conversation he had had with the founder of Motel Empordà and Hotel Almadrava, Josep Mercader. In a conversation they had, Mercader had told him that he "considered it a mistake to put sugar in tomato sauce to soften its acidity", so those who had thought of this resource so that the acidity would not be an argument to reject the food, would not be doing it right either. For the tomato to taste good on bread, he would cut the tomatoes in half, remove the water and seeds, wrap them in a clean cloth as if it were a small bag, and hang them in the refrigerator overnight. This is how "the tomato shed all its acidic liquids, and then acquired a natural and splendid sweetness", wrote Pomés.Finally, the author of the book dedicated to bread with tomato assured that it was a very economical food. In 1985, preparing one cost 17.60 pesetas, which if euros had existed would have been approximately 10 cents. With the inflation accumulated from 1985 to 2026, it is difficult to say that a slice of bread with tomato has this cost. However, Pomés maintains an argument that remains very current today: bread with tomato is versatile and adaptable. We can eat it for breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner. It can be a festive dish or help you survive a meal. And for many more advantages we find in it, there is always the freedom of those who do not like it, those who say that Catalan identity cannot be identified with a food that we have not been eating for so many centuries. Long before we ate bread with tomato, we ate bread with oil and garlic.