pasta con tomate
my favorite way to eat a tomato 🤝 my favorite way to eat everything
My favorite way to eat a tomato hails not from Italy, but from Spain: pan con tomate, grilled bread with tomatoes. Originally from Catalonia (where it’s called pa amb tomàquet, or “bread with tomato”), pan con tomate is a study in simplicity, a dish that requires only ten minutes, five ingredients (tomatoes, bread, olive oil, garlic, salt), and zero cooking. Which means it’s lazy summer fare at its finest. It also means that, without the safety net of myriad seasonings and techniques, it’s best enjoyed with the best-quality tomatoes. Luckily, we’re entering Prime Tomato Time, and so I thought it would be a great moment to marry my favorite way to eat a tomato and my favorite way to eat everything else—with pasta.
Pan con tomate is basically bruschetta’s western cousin, but instead of using chopped tomatoes, it relies on tomato pulp—the juicy, flavorful tomato insides. Of course, there isn’t one way to tomate: the pulp can be gathered by slicing a tomato in half and rubbing the cut sides on a piece of bread, staining it red; more commonly, the tomatoes are grated on the holes of a box grater to extract as much of the fruit as possible while leaving the skins behind. The bread varies, though it’s usually rustic, and is browned until slightly charred around the edges, a crunchy counterpoint to the soft tomato flesh. The toasted bread also holds up nicely to rubbing a clove of garlic across the surface before piling on the tomatoes (this is how I prefer it), though some recipes incorporate garlic directly into the tomato pulp, along with sherry vinegar. Still others top the dish with anchovies and/or aioli.
Although pan con tomate was the catalyst for today’s recipe, as I tumbled down my usual internet rabbit hole, I came across another dish, this time from Italy, called spaghetti alla Carrettiera. Spaghetti alla Carrettiera comes in two main iterations, one from Lazio and one from Sicily*—the former, dubbed “alla Romana,” is a combination of dried porcini mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, and tinned tuna; the latter is essentially a version of aglio e olio, often with the addition of fresh tomatoes. Both refer to their creators being the carrettieri, cart drivers who would travel between towns across Italy to sell their wares; both were dishes that could be easily made and eaten on the road. The differences in ingredients are vast (and, within each style, still more variations abound) because the cart drivers covered very different areas—farther north, preserved fish and vegetables were more widely available, while in the south, fresh tomatoes were easy to come by. It’s not hard to guess which one we’re talking about today (though I’m very intrigued by the Roman version!).
Many Sicilian iterations of the carrettiera sauce are, like pan con tomate, uncooked and feature grated tomatoes, a hint of garlic, and plenty of olive oil. They also typically include a pinch of peperoncino (or fresh chili peppers), basil, parsley, and pecorino. I was so taken by this discovery that ultimately today’s recipe is inspired by each dish in equal measure. My favorite part? The crunchy anchovy-garlic breadcrumbs that I’d happily eat by the spoonful.
*Speaking of Sicily, I’m hosting a pasta- and food-focused tour of eastern Sicily from March 15-21, 2026, and would love for you to join me! There are only a couple of spots left—for all the details, click here; to book, click the button below!
Pasta con Tomate
Serves 2