Since we got the polytunnel in 2020, every August bank holiday has involved harvesting and processing as many of the tomatoes as we can, with friends invited down for the weekend to lend a hand. This weekend will be no exception and alongside readying all of the equipment we’ll need to make passata, bottled tomatoes, passata and dried tomatoes, I have also been menu planning simultaneously.
One of our favourite quick lunches at this time of the year is tomatoes on toast. Thickly sliced beefsteaks, salt, olive oil and a sprinkle of vinegar, perhaps some finely chopped shallots, shredded basil, chives or flat leaf parsley. For guests we make the toasts more substantial with the additional of burrata, slices of buffalo mozzarella or crumbled feta.
There was a time when tomatoes on toast conjured images of hot tinned plum tomatoes on toasted white sliced bread spread with margarine. The very thought of them made me feel sick as a child. The soggy toast swimming in tomato juice. The tomatoes rather too meaty and often with a hard, green core which I would choke down, followed by gulps of orange squash. Fortunately this was not a tea-time dish that mum ever served in our house, but it was unfortunately impossible to refuse when it appeared on the tea table at a friend’s house where I would go on play dates.
Years later, after I left university, I lived in Barcelona for 4 months. I had gone there to do a TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and was lucky to be living in an apartment with a local, an old friend of a friend of mine in Madrid. Lourdes told me all of the best places to go (and those to avoid) and being a great home cook herself, many of these recommendations were cafes, bars and restaurants. She introduced me to her homemade tomato jam (which I have been interested to discover is identical to the Greek sweet tomato preserve also flavoured with cinnamon), an acquired taste for me at that time, but once I truly acknowledged that tomatoes are fruits, one that became increasingly easy to accept. She also told me where I could get the best pa amb tomàquet.
Known to most by its Spanish name of pan con tomate, pa amb tomàquet is a Catalan invention, although its exact origin is uncertain. It was originally a peasant dish that used an excess of tomatoes to soften dry bread and turn two ingredients – with the addition of olive oil and garlic – into a meal, much like Italian panzanella and pappa del pomodoro. Often eaten for breakfast, pa amb tomàquet appears at every meal, almost a replacement for the usual basket of bread, and in tapas bars is often topped with olives, anchovies, Manchego cheese, jamón or sliced egg. Lourdes told me that the best one near to where I was studying was at a bar on a little square adjacent to La Boqueria, the world-famous covered food market on the Ramblas in the centre of the city. It duly became my daily breakfast spot; glass of freshly pressed orange juice, a café cortado and pa amb tomàquet. What was different about the one served here, though, was the judicious addition of toasted cumin seeds, which felt entirely appropriate given the historic connection between Catalonia, Spain and North Africa.
Today’s recipe is my homage to those countless tomatoey breakfasts I ate almost 40 years ago now, with a second flavour combination that perhaps looks more to Mexico than North Africa. It goes without saying that a dish as simple as this stands or falls on the quality of the ingredients, so be sure to use the best bread and oil, the freshest garlic and the juiciest, sun-ripened tomatoes you can find.
Serves 2
2 large tomatoes, about 250-300g each
2 thick slices day old sourdough bread or foccacia
Olive oil
1 large clove fresh garlic, peeled
Salt
Seasoning
Red tomato – ½ teaspoon cumin seed and ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Orange tomato – ½ teaspoon coriander seed and the leaves from one stem of fresh coriander
Brush the bread on both sides generously with olive oil. Toast both sides on a heated cast iron griddle pan until golden brown and slightly charred at the edges. Alternatively toast under a grill.
While the bread is toasting grate the tomatoes on a coarse grater into separate bowls. Season both with salt.
Toast the cumin seeds in a small pan until fragrant. Remove a pinch to garnish, then add the smoked paprika as you take the pan off the heat. Crush together coarsely in a mortar and add to the bowl of red tomato.
Toast the coriander seeds in the same pan until fragrant. Crush coarsely in a mortar, remove a pinch to garnish and add to the bowl of orange tomato with finely chopped coriander leaves.
When the toast is ready rub the upper side of each slice with the clove of garlic. Spoon the tomato equally onto each slice. Drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle respectively with the reserved cumin and coriander seeds. Eat immediately, while the toast is still warm.
Recipe & photographs: Huw Morgan
Published 29 August 2026
