Pan Con Tomate Recipe is a traditional Spanish toast that is delicious! Crunchy toasted bread is rubbed with garlic, topped with ripe juicy tomato, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil making the perfect snack!
This recipe is so easy and with just a few ingredients you have at home, you can prepare delicious Spanish toast for breakfast or as a snack. As with most Mediterranean recipes, simplicity is key, but that means you need to have the best ingredients.
This Spanish toast is typically consumed for breakfast in Spain. Over the summer I was staying at a resort with mostly Spanish visitors, and even though there was a huge breakfast buffet, most Spaniards were eating this wonderful savory breakfast, of toast loaded with fresh grated tomato. And it is so good! Filling, fresh, and hearty! Plus, as I have mentioned before, a savory breakfast is something traditional in Mediterranean countries and has many benefits. The typical westernized breakfast all too often includes sugary cereals, ultra-processed carbs, and no good fats, raising your blood sugar quickly but then leaving you hungry after an hour. A savory breakfast with vegetables is a great way to start the day: the good fats and vegetables will help you reduce your sugar intake plus it will keep you full and your blood sugar levels balanced.
What is Pan Con Tomate?
Pan con tomate translates into bread with tomato. It is a typical Spanish breakfast dish. Hearty bread is toasted (traditionally stale bread may have been used) and then it is topped with grated tomato. The bread may be rubbed with a garlic clove for extra flavor and the grated tomato is seasoned with some salt and olive oil. The bread is then topped with the tomato and drizzled with a bit more olive oil.
In some areas of Spain, they make a bit differently; instead of grating the tomato they rub the tomato directly on the bread. I prefer the method of topping the bread with the tomato as you get a lot of tomato in one serving, which is an easy way to get your veggie servings.
Pan Con Tomate Ingredients
- Bread: This is probably the most important ingredient of this recipe. Typically, it will be a ciabatta type of bread. You can also use a baguette. I chose a hearty 100% whole grain bread, with no preservatives, enhancers etc. It should not be that typical sandwich bread as it needs to be a hearty bread that can hold the tomato.
- Tomato: Choose large ripe tomatoes, that can be grated easily.
- Olive Oil: The best and freshest extra virgin olive oil you can find.
- Salt: coarse sea salt
How to make Pan Con Tomate -Spanish Breakfast Toast
1. Start by grating the tomato. Cut it in half and grate it carefully on a grater until you are only left with the skin. Discard the skin.
2. Strain the tomato if the tomato is too liquidy it may make the bread soggy. If you are using hard bread, you can leave it unstrained.
*You can drink the saved tomato juice.
3. Place the grated tomato in a bowl and add salt and olive oil.
4. Toast the bread and rub some garlic on it.
5. Spoon the tomato on the bread. Optional: drizzle some olive oil before serving.
Tips For Making the Best Pan Con Tomate
- Don’t make it ahead. It only takes 5 minutes to prepare. You want the bread to be warm when consuming.
- Do not use canned tomatoes, the flavor comes from fresh tomatoes.
- You can toast the bread in a pan as well.
- If you are using a baguette or ciabatta, cut lengthwise and place the crust down when serving.
How to Serve Pan Con Tomate
- Pan con tomate is typically served for breakfast. You can also top with some cheese.
- This delicious Spanish tomato toast can also be served as a snack or as an appetizer: Cut in smaller strips and place on a platter.
- For a light lunch you can serve pan con tomate with a green salad.
Make Ahead and Storage
Although it is best nutritionally to eat the tomato freshly grated, you can also make it ahead and store it in the refrigerator for 3 days, so it’s ready to use the next few days.
More Easy Mediterranean Tomato Recipes
- Panzanella – Tuscan Tomato and Bread Salad
- Mediterranean Eggplant stuffed with Fresh Tomato and Onion
- 5-Ingredient Mediterranean Salad
- Greek Tomato Fritters from Santorini-Domatokeftedes
- Tomato-Feta-Greek Yogurt Phyllo Tart
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Pan Con Tomate Recipe-Spanish Breakfast Toast
Ingredients
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- A pinch of coarse sea salt
- 3 large slices of whole grain bread
- 1 garlic clove cut in half optional
Instructions
- Grate the tomatoes. Cut it in half and grate it carefully on a grater until you are only left with the skin. Discard the skin.
- Strain the tomatoes. If the tomato is too liquidy it may make the bread soggy. If you are using hard bread, you can leave it unstrained. *You can drink the saved tomato juice.
- Place the grated tomatoes in a bowl and add a pinch of salt and 1 ½ tsp olive oil.
- Toast the bread and rub some garlic on it.
- Spoon the tomato on the bread. Optional: drizzle 1/2 tsp olive oil on each slice before serving.
This was so simple but delicious! I used Roma tomatoes (sliced in half lengthwise which made for easy grating). The garlic rubbed onto the toast added such great flavor.
We had this at a tapas restaurant years ago. We ordered it to round out our selection, and it turned out to be the best thing on the menu! It’s only worth making if you can get good tomatoes, but when you can… wow. I’ve made it for dinner a few times with another tapa, chickpeas with spinach and cumin.
I made this today – it is so good. I used grape tomatoes, diced small (no need to strain them), added a pinch oregano, some black pepper, and I added about a Tbsp or two crumbled feta. I had some of your olive tapenade hanging around, so I spread that on the toast beforehand. What a great way to start the day and get some veggies/produce.
Pompeion is a mixture of olives from several different countries. Personally, I like Sparta Gourmet EVOO. Olives are grown in Sparta with no mix of olives from elsewhere. The EVOO is smooth – like velvet.
Can you please recommend a great EVOO by Brand name? The brand selections are so vast and confusing. Do I get Spanish, Italian, Greek. Moroccan, Californian? I don’t know anyone that can recommend what they like, and I’m not convinced my Pompeion is the best choice. I would appreciate it if very much. Tanks
Hey Frank, there’s a great article Elena did about olive oil and finding a good one. The main thing is actually looking on the back labels and seeing if they have a harvest date and/or codes for where the olives are sourced from. Greek olives are best and I think Italian olives are second best if I recall correctly. You’ll see the country codes like GR (Greece), IT (Italy), ES (Spain), etc. The best luck I’ve found finding Greek olive oil in the store is Colavita brand or actually some olive oil at World Market if you have one nearby.