Pan Con Tomate (Spanish Tomato Bread)

Last updated January 17th, 2025

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Pan Con Tomate is a quick and easy appetizer that adds freshness and a simple well balanced flavor to your tapas night.

A Spanish tomato bread appetizer.

Food is a great way to make new memories with the ones you love, get to know someone new, or even learn more about the culture your recipe is from. And tapas are no exception. Hosting a tapas party is a great way to try a couple different small plates or have everyone make something to bring and share. This puts meaning and stories behind each dish and allows you and your guests to share in an experience of trying and enjoying each one. 

What This Recipe Entails

Pan Con Tomate is perfect for any tapas night. Taking only 10 minutes to prepare, you can make it last minute when your guests are arriving, or bring it to a party as an easy dish for you to make that everyone will love. 

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 5 minutes

How To Make Pan Con Tomate

First, gather your ingredients. Pan Con Tomate is a super easy and delicious Spanish tapa that requires only 5 simple ingredients. However when you are working with so few ingredients, it’s important to make sure they are high quality. 

  • Spanish bread – You can generally find a typical Spanish bread at your local grocery store, such as pan de barra which is a Spanish-style baguette. If you can’t find that, any baguette, ciabatta, or rustic white bread will work well. 
  • Roma tomatoes – This dish is best when tomatoes are in season and perfectly ripe. Look for bright red tomatoes that are firm with a little give.
  • Minced garlic – Freshly minced garlic is best if you have the time.
  • Extra virgin olive oil – If you haven’t been to a local olive oil store for a tasting then you should give it a try. They’ll help you find the right olive oil for your tastes.
  • Sea salt – This recipe works best with large flakey sea salt. 

Once you have your ingredients, making pan con tomate is really only 3 basic steps:

  1. Spread minced garlic on some bread.
  2. Toast the bread.
  3. Pile grated tomato on the toasted bread and top with EVOO and sea salt.

When you are toasting the bread, make sure that it isn’t too close to the broiler. You want the bread to be crispy, but not burnt. If you want to be extra careful, set your timer for only 2 minutes and check then. For more tips to help you in the kitchen, sign up for our newsletter to receive your free guide to making the most out of any recipe!

Pan con tomate.

Serving Suggestions

Traditionally Pan Con Tomate, or Spanish tomato bread, is served as a tapa, or small plate. Since it isn’t expected to be a meal itself, it is best served alongside other tapas or appetizers. Here are some great tapas for you to try:

And if you are looking for any more ideas on how to host a tapas party, check out our post here!

Recipe Variations

  • Drier topping and crispier bread – We like our pan con tomate to be on the juicy side. However, if you would prefer a dryer topping and crispier bread you can drain some or all of the liquid from the tomatoes after grating. Alternatively you can slice the bread thinner or broil it longer for a crispier texture.
  • More garlic – Do you believe the more garlic the better? Sub minced garlic for fresh garlic cloves. Smash the cloves then rub them over the top of each piece of bread then leave the cloves for pockets of intense garlic flavor. Alternatively you can roast, mash and spread the garlic over the bread. Either of these options will add a stronger garlic flavor to your pan con tomate. 
  • Extra flavors – You can amp up the flavor of this pan con tomate by adding in fresh basil or other herbs to your grated tomato before spreading over the bread. 
Spanish tomato bread.

We hope you enjoy your tapas night. Help others do the same by commenting, rating, and sharing below!


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Pan con tomate tapas dish on a serving board.

Pan Con Tomate (Spanish Tomato Bread)

Alex
Pan Con Tomate is a quick and easy appetizer that adds freshness and a simple well balanced flavor to your tapas night.
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine Spanish
Servings 2 servings
Calories 159 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients
 
 

  • ½ loaf Spanish bread sub ciabatta or rustic white bread, sliced into strips
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 3 medium roma or plum tomatoes
  • Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
  • Sea salt to taste

Instructions
 

  • Place the bread on a baking sheet. Spoon minced garlic onto each piece of bread, spreading it evenly with the back of the spoon.
    Broil on high for 3 to 4 minutes or until lightly toasted.
  • Grate the tomatoes over a bowl, collecting the juices.
  • Top each slice of bread with a healthy portion of grated tomato. Then, lightly drizzle each piece of bread with olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

Notes

Toasting the bread: Make sure the bread isn’t too close to the heating element in your oven so you don’t burn the bread. The perfect texture for pan con tomate is a light, crunchy toast to the very top of the bread – just enough for the inside to stay fluffy and soak up all the tomato juice.

Nutrition

Serving: 1servingCalories: 159kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 296mgPotassium: 226mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 775IUVitamin C: 13mgCalcium: 12mgIron: 1mg
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Keyword fresh bread, garlic, olive oil, party, sperlonga, spring, summer, tapas, tomatoes
5 from 1 vote (1 rating without comment)

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