Pan Con Tomate: A Spanish Breakfast

I’m a breakfast person. The idea of warm oatmeal with fresh berries, scrambled eggs with vegetables or even my favorite cereal with cold milk is usually enough to get me out of bed in the morning.

The Spanish enjoy a simple breakfast. In the home of my host family, that means pan, the Spanish word for bread.

On some mornings, my host mother Berta has butter and jam beside the bread basket on the kitchen table. One morning, she had two slices of bread waiting for me with a sliced tomato on the side of the plate. “Quieres pan con tomate?” she said, asking if I wanted the bread. “Sí,” I responded, taking my place at the table.

Pan con tomate is a basic concept I’d never thought of before coming to Spain: a sliced tomato squeezed onto bread, coupled with a bit of olive oil and seasoned with salt or garlic. The juice softens the bread, as butter does, and the result is a fresh-tasting start to the morning.

Yesterday was my first Sunday in Barcelona, and I thought about the bacon, eggs and pancakes mom likes to cook at home on the weekends. I missed that a little. But there is something delightfully simple and something I love about pan con tomate.