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| My tomato bread breakfast in Barcelona or Burgos |
“Never go out in the morning without having
eaten something.” My Mom used to say this and now I live by this credo of
common sense. Thanks, Mom, for the habit of eating breakfast that helps me avoid the blood sugar and brain first aid kit of energy snacks.
I recently attended an Awards dinner where
the company recognises the outstanding achievements in Making a Difference for
people either within the company or in their communities. My
colleagues from the UK
won an award for establishing a charity that supports breakfasts for children in
their community. A lot of children didn’t eat breakfast and were behaving
badly at school, they were not paying attention and their learning suffered. Not
only did their own results suffer, they also disturbed their classmates. A
proper breakfast changed that.
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| Roma tomatoes (the bigger ones) and date tomatoes (the small oval), cherry (the small round ones) |
It is summer time in Europe and depending on where
you live the tomatoes either are or will become ripe soon. My best holiday
morning in Estonia
would be to wonder around in the glasshouse and pick a few warm tomatoes (thanks, Dad, for all the hard work), smell
the tomato leaves on the fingers and make a nice tomato sandwich with rye bread, butter and tomato with salt and pepper for breakfast.
We call it “tomativõileib” or “tomato butter bread”. Like that…
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| Tomativõileib - tomato bread in Estonia |
In Catalunya and Spain my favourite breakfast is equally
tomato bread or “pa amb tomaquet”, “pan con tomate “. Tomato, olive oil, bread,
that’s it basically. At home I use varieties with fewer seeds like Marzano or Roma.
A bit of fat is good with tomato. It helps the
body to make use of the vitamin A from the tomatoes.
4 tomatoes
Pinch of sea salt
0.5 tsp sugar
Black pepper
3-4 tbsp olive oil
Take the skins off by cutting crosses into
the top and bottom of the tomatoes, placing them into a bowl of hot water for a
minute or two. Then drain the hot water and peel the skins off.
Grate the tomatoes on the side with the
largest holes.
Season with salt, sugar, freshly ground
pepper and olive oil.
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| Pa amb tomaquet in Catalan or Pan con tomate in Spanish |
Serve with toasted bread. I prefer thicker
more robust slices of bread to the regular toast. The slices of bread can be
toasted in the oven or in the toaster.
A question on my mind: why is the tomato
often very pale in the hotels in Spain where I have eaten pan con
tomate? Is it because the less ripe, 2nd class
tomatoes are crushed for this dish or is there a special paler flesh variety they use?
Enjoy your breakfast, the most important
meal of the day!