Pa amb tomàquet (Bread with Tomato)

This was one of my favorite things I devoured in Spain.  It is one of those unadorned food items that excels because of uncomplicated quality ingredients.  It is delicious in its simplicity.  Heavenly.  Below is a picture from a Catalan restaurant we had it at while visiting Barcelona.  It makes me drool to look at it.  SO GOOD!

• 1 loaf of bread.  I used half organic sourdough and ciabatta baguettes in a combination of the two
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and whole with tips sliced off
• Flaky sea salt.  I used Maldon
• 2 Tomatoes on the Vine
• Extra virgin olive oil (I used Terra Delyssa Organic)

That was the best ingredients I could come up with today.  I was serving this with a "Spanish Tortilla" which is like an Italian frittata, but I didn't feel like blogging that tonight, so maybe another time.  There will be a next time.  It was awesome.  I added some baby spinach and Manchego cheese to it.  This was my vegetarian dinner this week.  Anyway, I halved the baguettes and sliced into serving pieces.  I put these on a baking tray and toasted them under the broiler.

I peeled the garlic and cut the tips off.  When the toasting was done, I ran the cloves up and down, over the bread.  This is a great way to put garlic on.  It always surprises me that there is hardly any garlic left, after, it just rubs right into the bread.

I put a pinch of flaky salt on each piece, next.

The tomatoes I had done before the bread.  I cut them in half and grated them into a bowl until the skin was all that remained.  I spread some of the mixture over each slice of toast. 

I drizzled the olive oil over every piece and that was it.  I added a final pinch of salt too.  All done and ready to eat.

Dinner tonight was extraordinarily outstanding, if I do say so myself.  I had a nice glass of Rioja wine and the whole meal brought back fond memories of Spain.  This is one for the books!  Next time I want to put some white anchovies (boqureones) on the tomato bread too...I just need to find them.  That Maldon salt is stunning in this, perfect notes of saltiness to heighten the tomato flavor.  We both liked the sourdough better than the ciabatta - it was crisper and chewier, so next time I'll just get that.  My son asked me to "please make this dinner again".  😋