But there's much more to Spanish cuisine than tapas, and you can experience it yourself with The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen. Anya gathered 300 recipes for her book, including this easy and delicious one for Catalan Tomato Bread, which could be served as tapas or as a delicious accompaniment to a steaming dish of paella.
Catalan Tomato Bread
Ingredients
1 piece (9-10" long and at least 2" in diameter) dense, chewy baguette, cut in half lengthwise
Fragrant extra-virgin olive oil
2 fat garlic cloves (optional), cut in half
1 large ripe but firm tomato, cut in half crosswise
Coarse salt (kosher or sea)
Method
- Light the grill and preheat it to medium or preheat the broiler.
- Brush the cut side of each baguette half very lightly with olive oil and rub it with garlic, if using.
Grill or broil the bread until golden, about 45 seconds, watching out that it doesn't burn around the edges.
- When the bread is just cool enough to handle, rub the cut side of each half with the cut side of a tomato half, pressing down on the tomato to extract some of the pulp.
Drizzle more olive oil over the bread and sprinkle it with salt.
Cut each baguette in half on the diagonal into roughly 11/4" pieces and serve at once.
SERVES 4
