TOMATO BREAD FOREVER.

Or at least, most of the year (but don't tell the seasonal police).

My friend is just back from Barcelona. “The tomato bread!” she cried. “The tomato bread!”

I love it when people find something in front of them that they didn’t even know they were missing, and now they can’t – and won’t – live without it.

I am about to juggernaut my way around the Mediterranean where I intend to do exactly that – find wonderful things to eat that I didn’t know existed. As a result, I have been inspired by our mainstream television channels to replay the classics throughout the holiday period, in lieu of sparkling new material. If they can get away with the 4,530th screening of Home Alone, then I can repurpose a bloody good recipe.

More importantly, I am updating it, because I want to remind us all that while summer may have come to an end in Australia, you can still do an autumn/winter version of pan con tomate (also known by its Catalan name pa am tomaquet, and in Spanish, pan tumaca) and have it most of the year round.

It’s just bread, tomato, garlic and olive oil, after all. The only real variable in there is the tomato, so the technique should vary according to what you are working with.

Don’t tell me they stop making pan con tomate in Spain in winter - and just look at these beauties that I’ve had in Barcelona, at Bar del Pla (l) and Tapas 24 (r).

HOW TO WINTERISE PAN CON TOMATE:

1/ Find the best tomatoes available – in winter, that’s often the smallish Sampari or cocktail ones.

2/ Strengthen their flavour. Roughly chop them when you get home and give them time to marinate in olive oil, sea salt and pepper, and you'll have more tomato flavour for your buck.

3/ If you have only boring, bland tomatoes, then season them well and gently fry them in olive oil until they soften, to sharpen the flavour. If they’re really ordinary, a little sugar and vinegar with add sweet-and-sourness. Pile onto the garlic-oiled bread and eat warm. (Okay purists, I realise this is not pan con tomate, but tomato bread can come in many forms).

4/ Alternatively, oven-roast your tomatoes until soft, and squish them onto your garlic-oiled bread.

TRAD VERSUS MOD:

The traditional method of production is to cut a bread roll in half, rub the insides with a cut clove of garlic, drizzle it with olive oil and toast it. Then you cut a tomato in half and rub it on the cut halves while squeezing the insides out of it onto the bread, discarding the spent tomato skin. Drizzle with more olive oil; eat.

A more contemporary way:

Smash the garlic into the olive oil to infuse. Coarsely grate the tomato, skin and all, on a grater. Brush the roll with garlicky olive oil and toast or grill. Strain out the watery juices and slather on the tomato, adding sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

AND ALWAYS pop the finished product back under a griller to toast the edge and warm it up again.

Specifically, you’re aiming for a warm crunch through sweetly acidic, seedy, juicy, oily, salty, slushy tomato on supportive bread, as a waft of garlicky olive oil and the slightly bitter fragrance of smoke take over the nose.

More from the Tomato Breads I Have Known files: taken at Cannot Remember To Save My Life, and Vinitus in Barcelona:

Some things to note, because I like to state the obvious in case it isn’t obvious:

# A lot of recipes call for thickly cut, rustic sourdough bread that is either stale, or baked slowly in a low oven to effectively imitate staleness. This makes sense but the bread in the middle can become soggy. It’s better to split a bap-style roll (something more substantial than fluffy, ciabatta is good, also sourdough baguette), and you have the structure of the base working in your favour.

# Try grating the tomatoes, instead of squishing.

# Allow one large tomato per person.

# Grill under the griller, not in the toaster.

# Serve with: a platter of jamon or prosciutto. Anchovies. Olives. Chorizo sausage. A potato tortilla frittata-type thing. Scrambled eggs. Roasted peppers. Wilted greens. Pan-fried padron peppers.

I lean heavily to the jamon idea, as seen here at the former Lola’s in Bondi Beach.

PAN CON TOMATE, LEANING INTO WINTER.

• 4 big, flat, bread rolls

• 100 ml fruity olive oil

• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced

• 4 big ripe juicy tomatoes or the best you can find

Infuse the olive oil with the garlic.

Cut the bread rolls in half lengthwise and lightly grill until warm and browned.

Brush each half with the garlicky olive oil.

EITHER cut each tomato in half, and rub the cut side of the tomato over each half, squeezing at the same time, so the juices and seeds run out and are absorbed by the bread.

OR grate the tomato on a coarse grater, skin and all (chop any skin left-over and add it back in) then spoon the lot over the bread, leaving any watery juices behind.

Scatter with sea salt and drizzle with extra olive oil.

Return to the grill and heat for a few seconds until crisp and lightly scorched at the edges.

Excellent example from Balcon by Tapavino in Sydney.

Thanks for dropping by! Special thanks to Jan for the inspo, and to Terry for forever bringing home the best tomatoes of the day, even if - in the dark days - they have to be in a can, which is not the worst thing that can happen to a tomato.

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a sense of belonging in this ancient land.