Pan Con Tomate

Now 4 months into living in a new country, I'm starting to miss home a little.  The last time I saw my Dad, Kirsten and sister Jemima together was back in March when I visited them in Mallorca, where they were rather sensibly spending their winter. 

I was apprehensive about my options for food on the Mediterranean island, expecting to be asked "¿comes pollo? " when I announced I was "vegano."  My pessimism was, however, proven to be totally unwarranted throughout my trip and I've been craving several of the meals I had there ever since.  This recipe is for one I finally had a crack at today, and it transported me straight back to the coast.

A restaurant across the road from my family's apartment was their traditional spot for breakfast.  After Kirsten, my step-mum, explained that I was "vegano" (with added no meat, no dairy, no eggs in Spanish learned just for me!) the reply to "what can he have?" came "tomato and bread."  "Great" I thought.   

I needn't have worried. Mediterranean cuisine does a fantastic job of celebrating a single ingredient in a simple way. Pan Con Tomate takes the humble tomato and combines it with 4 simple things; garlic, salt pepper and olive oil, (I can't help but add a little basil to mine) because that's all it needs. Alongside a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice it makes for the perfect start of the day.

Ingredients:

450g of perfectly ripe tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves
60ml of extra virgin olive oil
5 basil leaves
Sea salt
Black pepper
4 slices of your favourite rustic bread (I used sourdough)

Chop the tomatoes and crush and roughly chop the garilc.  Add to a food processor along with the olive oil, basil leaves, a couple of large pinches of salt and 3 turns of the pepper grinder. Blend for 20 seconds, add more salt and pepper to taste.  Leave for half an hour to let the flavours blend together.

Take your slices of bread and brush both sides with olive oil.  Fry them in a grill pan until they are well-seared both sides.  Spoon over the tomatoes, making sure to press it down into the bread with the back of the spoon and enjoy!