Cathy,

Those Camparis are indeed nice but I don't think I've seen them lately in the stores I've been visiting, though it could well be the case they've been there and I just haven't seen them.

I usually just go by how the tomatoes look and feel. The one pictured here was, I believe, only minimally described on the price sign at Whole Foods (Roosevelt) as "hot house". They also had Mexican plum tomatoes which looked great but the look of those sometimes goes seriously unmatched by the texture and flavour within, so I opted instead for the "hot house" fruits. They also had some Canadian heirloom tomatoes on hand, of which I bought one, attracted by the fact that in form it resembled somewhat the cuor di bue variety and, in addition, was still a little green. Certain varieties are particularly good in salads when they are not fully ripe, at least to the Italian palate.

I also used a couple of those tomatoes for a sauce, where they rendered highly laudable service, and so perhaps I'll post on that dish as well.

Saluti,
A

Where are you finding olio that you know is nuovo?

mrbarolo wrote:Where are you finding olio that you know is nuovo?

Oh, the one used in the photo above is certainly the real deal. It wasn't purchased around here.

Time (and mood) permitting, I shall post on my olii nuovi soon...

A

They had some small oddly brown looking tomatoes at Aldi last week but they were delicious. I am going to make this dish when the tomatoes in the yard ripen. I don't really get this dish, Pa amb tomàquet. My hair stylist, who is from Barcelona turned me on to it but I've never actually had it. Just good bread with a scraping of tomato, garlic and a drizzle of olive oil??? Don't get it. I get bruschetta...it has chopped ingredients on it but there looks to be not much of any thing on Pa am tomaquet. I'll suspend judgement until I've had it. It does look easy peasy and a great summer type of dish. I'll probably feel like putting other stuff on it...cheese...ham, etc.....

Toria, I've actually had this dish, prepared by Master Antonius himself, and I can attest to its simplicity and deliciousness. It's about as stripped down a snack as can be, and if the tomatoes and bread good, you get a light, delicate mouthful of summery flavor. I suppose you could add ham and stuff, and that would probably be just fine, but I think you have the right idea about trying it in the original form first...and adding more as needed.

As the man says, "Respect the simplicity."

Okay I'll try it as soon as I can get some good tomatoes from the yard. I guess its hard for us Americans to get jazzed up about some dish that is so simple because many of us love excess. Any dish that is so loved and talked about and written about has to have something going for it. I'll try to restrain myself. (can I at least smear a basil leaf on it??)

The first time, do it exactly as is. Read Antonius's post again. Have a nice Spanish Rosado. Breathe, close your eyes, you've got summer in your mouth.

Goooood. I'm getting in to the mood now. But I don't have any garden tomatoes just yet. Will look forward to this when they come.

Coincidental to the recent revival of this thread, we just had our ritual first pa amb tomaquet of the summer. Nothing special to add to what's already known about the glory of this snack. I'm mainly using the occasion to see if I can finally import a photo successfully. My first attempt a couple of years ago was a dismal failure and I haven't had the nerve to climb back up on ol' Flikr and try to ride 'im again.


Spicy Bread 2 by mrbarolo, on Flickr


Spicy Bread 1 by mrbarolo, on Flickr

The photos, should they appear, pretty much tell the story. Basic ingredients (Costco's better oil. i.e. the vintage bottle), sea salt, a fortuitously good bit of garlic, Medici bread and the first decent tom. of the summer. Not home grown, but our Treasure Island (Hyde Park) surprises me by getting in first Arkansas and then Kentucky tomatoes as they ripen. And while they're not back yard good, they're better than CA, FL, Mex. and Canadian ones in most other supermarkets.

The captions say "spicy bread" because that's what my 10 yr. old dubbed the dish when he first tasted it 5 years ago. It's the one thing he'll say "yes" too almost any time. He ate these slices after already having dinner and ice cream for dessert when I mentioned that we had all the ingredients.

In my experience it is not necessary to have high quality tomatoes to make pa amb tomaquet, in fact I normally buy the cheapest red tomatoes (usually Roma) and I cut them in half and grate them with a box grater. I can then spoon and spread the grated juice/pulp on the bread. I find this to yield much more tomato pulp, and it isn't necessary to have the ripest, juciest, reddest (and priciest) tomatoes.

Also I do enjoy both the garlic and tomato on the bread, but while doing it like this I have received funny looks from some Catalans who feel it should be either garlic rubbed on or tomato rubbed on, but not both.

MKL wrote:In my experience it is not necessary to have high quality tomatoes to make pa amb tomaquet, in fact I normally buy the cheapest red tomatoes (usually Roma) and I cut them in half and grate them with a box grater. I can then spoon and spread the grated juice/pulp on the bread. I find this to yield much more tomato pulp, and it isn't necessary to have the ripest, juciest, reddest (and priciest) tomatoes.
.

So you're saying that using pulp from lousy tomatoes will yield good results. Do those tomatoes have any flavor at all?

Evil Ronnie wrote:

MKL wrote:In my experience it is not necessary to have high quality tomatoes to make pa amb tomaquet, in fact I normally buy the cheapest red tomatoes (usually Roma) and I cut them in half and grate them with a box grater. I can then spoon and spread the grated juice/pulp on the bread. I find this to yield much more tomato pulp, and it isn't necessary to have the ripest, juciest, reddest (and priciest) tomatoes.
.

So you're saying that using pulp from lousy tomatoes will yield good results. Do those tomatoes have any flavor at all?

Isn't the whole point "to enjoy for one month the ripest, juciest, reddest (and unfortunately priciest) tomatoes."???

Evil Ronnie wrote:

MKL wrote:In my experience it is not necessary to have high quality tomatoes to make pa amb tomaquet, in fact I normally buy the cheapest red tomatoes (usually Roma) and I cut them in half and grate them with a box grater. I can then spoon and spread the grated juice/pulp on the bread. I find this to yield much more tomato pulp, and it isn't necessary to have the ripest, juciest, reddest (and priciest) tomatoes.
.

So you're saying that using pulp from lousy tomatoes will yield good results. Do those cheap Roma tomatoes have any flavor at all? Why would one prefer a greater yield from tomatoes void of any actual tomato flavor?

As far as tomatoes go, I think flavor is flavor. It's there or it ain't. I don't look for the priciest, but I do wait for the season and try to get the ripest and most local. The great thing about these TI tomatoes is that they seem to be more local, and less pricey. ($1.49/lb) They're dense, meaty (also beaty, big and bouncy). (I'm so old.)

As to the garlic, I laugh in the face of funny looks from Catalans.
Ha-ha!
I once received the malocchio from a Milanese for eating broccoli with roast chicken, and having survived that, I cannot be intimidated. I have even ordered coffee WITH my dessert, in ROME, because that's the way I like it, dammit.

Evil Ronnie wrote:

Evil Ronnie wrote:

MKL wrote:In my experience it is not necessary to have high quality tomatoes to make pa amb tomaquet, in fact I normally buy the cheapest red tomatoes (usually Roma) and I cut them in half and grate them with a box grater. I can then spoon and spread the grated juice/pulp on the bread. I find this to yield much more tomato pulp, and it isn't necessary to have the ripest, juciest, reddest (and priciest) tomatoes.
.

So you're saying that using pulp from lousy tomatoes will yield good results. Do those tomatoes have any flavor at all?

Isn't the whole point "to enjoy for one month the ripest, juciest, reddest (and unfortunately priciest) tomatoes."???

Hi Evil - thanks for correcting me, you're totally right- my grossly underdeveloped palatte doesn't know what it is doing (I should just rub the stupid bread with tobacco spit, I wouldn't know the difference) and my enjoyment of pa amb tomaquet has no discernable "point".

mrbarolo wrote:As far as tomatoes go, I think flavor is flavor. It's there or it ain't. I don't look for the priciest, but I do wait for the season and try to get the ripest and most local. The great thing about these TI tomatoes is that they seem to be more local, and less pricey. ($1.49/lb)

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but how are tomatoes from Arkansas "more local?" I think tomatoes are central to this dish -- why not wait until really local, ripe, juicy tomatoes are flooding the farmer's markets in August and use those? They probably won't be available at TI, but I was never that impressed with supermarket produce in general.

I suppose, looking at a map, they're not measurably "local." Perhaps marginally more local than CA or FL, but I agree that alone would not be a convincing argument for them.
I can only say that when they appeared they were demonstrably better in every other attribute. They had some give as opposed to being baseball hard, they were irregularly shaped, they had some aroma, suggesting that they had been allowed to ripen rather than having been picked completely green for shipping and storage.
When I cut into them, these signs of potential goodness proved true. The inside was fleshy and flavorful rather than mealy and blank. In short, these tomatoes reminded me of home grown and farmers' market tomatoes in ways that the usual supermarket product never does.
Given all that, I feel no need to wait for August as I find these better than serviceable. When August comes and my own fruit ripens, I'll dig into that as well. It's not an either/or proposition.

Regarding the use of garlic, some Catalans include it regularly, some don't. Some 30 years ago I was first introduced to this noble dish by a native of the region around Barcelona and he most definitely used garlic. On the Balearic islands (where what is in essence the same dish is called pa amb oli), according to a survey, a very large minority of people (I don't remember the exact number but it was in the 30-40% range, I believe) include garlic. I myself use it often but sometimes, when I eat this dish for breakfast and then esp. in the summer when I have just picked a perfectly ripe tomato from my garden that's still warm from the morning sun, I might well leave the garlic out to focus on the flavour of the tomato.

The better the basic ingredients -- the bread, the oil, the tomato -- the less inclined I am to add items to the bread or alongside the bread. But a good piece of cheese, some olives, an anchovy or two, a slice of serious ham, or some nice herb... And yes, an initial rub of garlic... all nice ways to add variety...

Antonius

We made this today from a tomato from the garden. I followed the instructions exactly as provided here and its very good. Much better than I thought. Lovely litte snack for tea or anytime for a munch. I think good or at least decent tomatoes would be the key. I will go to costco at some point for the iberico ham they sell and see if that will be good too. This is one of the recipes my hairdresser has taught me. this and canellones, catalonian chicken, and aoili. those are dishes that they make in barcelona.