I have to start telling you part of my life story — or better said, part of my mother’s story. My mother, Montserrat, is a result of a grand love story in times of war. Her father was a teacher from a small town in Catalonia, Spain. He fell in love with a beautiful woman living in the next town down the road. They loved each other very much. When the Spanish Civil War was lost, my grandfather was forced into a concentration camp in France; he later took asylum in México in 1939. My grandmother followed him later because her passport took a long time, she sailed across the Atlantic in the midst of WWII in 1942 in the famous ship Marqués de Comillas. My grandfather promised not to return to Spain until the fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, was taken out of power. Life is not fair sometimes though — he had to go back to Spain to say goodbye to his family as he was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Franco was still in power. My grandmother passed away 13 years later, when my mother was 32 years old and 7 months pregnant with me. I never had the pleasure of meeting them. My grandfather Pau was an artist, a painter and writer; my grandmother Jacinta was a loving wife, the best knitter and cook.
The rest of my family is still in Spain, most living in the Catalonian capital of Barcelona. Last spring my aunt Roser (I was named after this Catalan name) came to visit my mother and my mother’s sister in México. They were generous enough to come visit Adam and my very pregnant self in San Diego.
I have always wanted to know more about Catalan cooking, to learn a little more about my roots, so I decided to put my aunt Roser to work. Among many recipes she taught me were fricandó and suquet de peix. I also discovered that the only simple but delicious recipe that I thought I knew was wrong! Pa amb tomàquet: “bread with tomatoes.”
Here the right way to make this simple recipe taught by an authentic Catalonian:
Ingredients:
- Very ripe, red tomatoes
- Bread with a large diameter. We used ciabatta
- A good olive oil and salt
- You can also rub some garlic on the bread (optional)
Instructions: Slice the bread in 1/3″ pieces. Cut the tomatoes in half and rub them against ciabatta bread pressing on them (like you press on an orange.) Add a drizzle of olive oil and salt.
That’s all you have to do for a simple delicious and traditional Catalonian recipe.
Pa amb tomàquet is usually eaten as an appetizer.
CALIFORNIA - PERFECT 