Bread with tomato is linked to Catalan identity, and we probably wouldn't find another food that identifies us so emotionally in such a clear way. The slice of bread spread 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 drawbacks, and who, despite all this, are also Catalan, that's clear. The latter are the ones who, when they order a sandwich or some slices of bread, kindly ask for the bread to be only with olive oil. You will hear them emphasize 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 food that, in theory, is very simple to prepare, and which has an economic cost. The sacrileges or barbarities are multiple: grated tomato with a grater on top of the slice of bread; tomato sauce obtained after crushing the tomatoes, with skins included, and spread on the bread with a brush; acidity of the food due to using tomatoes that are not ripe, red, or shiny. To all this we can add that the food has not managed to become universal despite the fact that there are Catalan chefs who have opened restaurants around the world and put it on the menu. The longed-for Montse Guillén did it in her restaurant in New York, and the Catalan Clos family also currently does it in 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 we can find more, but they have not amplified the food to make it 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 get it right: at most we will manage to get the tomato cut into slices between the bread, which, it must be said, is how bread with tomato is eaten on the islands of Mallorca and Ibiza.Indignation like the Italians do

At the Semproniana restaurant, chef Ada Parellada assures that "without pan con tomate" she would die, because for her "food is home, comfort". She thinks it's great 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, raise their voices to the sky. "If we get indignant about bad pan con tomate, we don't let ourselves be trampled on, and perhaps there are few dishes that make us indignant when they are poorly prepared". When should we say no to pan con tomate? When it's pureed, the sauce is placed in a bowl, and they dip a brush in the sauce to put it on sliced bread. "And they do it in front of us, defying our eyes; that's when I celebrate people getting angry". And it's like that because the chef maintains that it's not that difficult, because there are four ingredients: bread, tomato, salt, and olive oil, and because "we have good products". In fact, the same "tomate de colgar" (hanging tomato) "is technologically manipulated to have good skin, to be picked with tweezers, and good pulp, so that it comes off on the bread when we moisten it", says Parellada, who adds that she understands that restaurants, when working in large volumes, might find it quicker to have the tomato pureed beforehand to moisten it. "I understand, but I repeat that it's easy to prepare it when they ask for pan con tomate". 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 regularly have a very integrated taste". Meanwhile, at the Trü restaurant in Barcelona (C. Córsega, 232) the slice of pan con tomate is prepared by the chefs with ceremony and passion. The "tomate de colgar", you will see it from the table or the bar where you eat; the chefs pick one while they toast the slice of bread in front of you. Then they rub the tomato on it, add salt, and drizzle with oil. Chef Artur Martínez and his entire team show that there is hope when it comes to eating a very good one.On the other hand, to understand how a slice of pan con tomate has become a symbol of a people's identity, we have to go back centuries, but not too far. The tomato arrived from America at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors, and when it arrived in Spain 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, 18th centuries were passing, and it wasn't until 1884 that a Catalan writer, Pompeu Gener (whom bestselling author David Uclés confesses he would have liked to meet) mentioned the dish in a writing. The one who first explained Pompeu Gener's reference 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 on pan con tomate, "Teoría y práctica del pan con tomate", 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 succeeded. The phrase that the journalist and writer Néstor Luján said was the first written literary reference to pan con tomate was the following: "What we ate one night was bread with oil seasoned with tomato". In any case, Leopoldo Pomés maintained in his book that the orthodox way of preparing it was with "pan de payés" (a type of rustic bread), spread on both sides with the "red and substantial varnish", then salted, and finally, drizzled with olive oil. The order of the ingredients is basic, because if the salt was placed after the olive oil, it would then slide down. On the contrary, if the salt is put on before the olive oil, it sticks to the bread. For the dish not to be acidic – one of the reproaches of the anti pan con tomate crowd – the important thing is the ripeness of the tomato and also that the maximum acidity limit of olive oil is 0.4. "You also shouldn't rub the tomato hard; the spreading shouldn't be excessive", because spreading pan con tomate is not like putting jam on it. "The exact point is what gives it a red tint", said Pomés, who also theorized about the centimeters needed for distance when applying olive oil to the slice: 10. And above all, skins should not be used, the tomato skins, which are only useful for handling, for picking them with your fingers and rubbing them on the bread.Beyond the orthodox recipe, let's remember this: with both sides spread, Leopoldo Pomés also revealed a conversation he 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 add sugar to tomato sauce to soften its acidity", so those who had thought of this resource so that acidity wouldn't be an argument to reject the dish, wouldn't be doing it right either. For the tomato to have a good flavor on the bread, he would cut the tomatoes in half, remove the water and seeds, wrap them in a clean cloth like 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. Chef Jaume Subirós assures that even today this is how they prepare it at Hotel Almadrava. Finally, the author of the book dedicated to pan con tomate assured that it was a very economical dish. In 1985, preparing one cost 17.60 pesetas, which if euros had existed would have been approximately 10 cents. With the accumulated inflation from 1985 to 2026, it is difficult to say that a slice of pan con tomate has this cost. However, Pomés maintains an argument that remains very current today: pan con tomate is versatile and adaptable. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, a snack, or dinner. It can be a festive dish or help you survive a meal. And for many more advantages we find, there is always the freedom of those who don't like it, those who say that Catalan identity cannot be identified with a dish that we haven't been eating for so many centuries. Long before we ate pan con tomate, we ate bread with oil and garlic.

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