Thursday, May 07, 2009

I AGREE: pà amb tomàquet, a kind of bruschetta with rubbed tomato, is probably the most characteristic food in Catalonia -- and the most pervasive. We eat it all the time, not only on its own, slice by slice with or without stuff like ham, cheese, what have you, on it: it's almost impossible to find a sandwich around here with something other than rubbed tomato (instead of butter, or just nothing, as in other countries). But it has to be done right: the perfect bread (as the article says, preferably some kind of rustic bread: in Catalonia it's pà de pagès, or "peasant's bread"), good quality olive oil, and a very ripe tomato that you cut in half and gently rub on the bread (since it's now more popular, in other parts of Spain they just open a can of mashed tomato and spread it; that's disgusting). Personally I don't put garlic in it, though.