Bread with tomato and ham
Sometimes we simply want to leave our guests with their mouths wide open and ready for a big bite. This dish is exactly what will achieve that. The traditional Catalan tomato bread with a touch of iberian ham presented in a new format. Can you imagine a tomato and ham bread salad? Today you're going to learn how to prepare it.
A traditional dish like this is prepared with the flavor of times gone by, so we'll opt for a good country-style bread. Head to your nearest bakery and ask them to slice it as thinly as possible without it breaking, and keep in mind that you'll have to handle it later.
Ingredients
The ham we recommend for this recipe is a good iberian acorn-fed ham, which will counterbalance the tomato's acidity with its intense flavor. We suggest choosing a ham with a lot of white marbling, as this ensures it will be flavorful, and the nuances of the ham will delight your diners.
As for the ham's origin, choose whatever you prefer; however, you might not notice the usual flavor due to the tomato. If you're unsure about your favorite ham flavor, we recommend taking this test.
Lastly, regarding the tomato, we suggest using seasonal ones, those tomatoes that smell like tomatoes. A supermarket refrigerator tomato will also work, but the dish will lose some consistency. Now it's time to get started.
Preparation
- Once you have a thin slice of country-style bread, roll it up into a tube shape or, if you prefer, into a circle that you'll seal with a wooden toothpick. As you can see, everything you need for this recipe are products we call "traditional." In this part of the process, you might lose some pieces of bread if it was cut too thin at the bakery.
- When you have as many bread tubes as expected guests, place a little parchment paper on a tray and bake them at 180 degrees for 11 minutes, checking that they become crispy. Don't rely too much on the minutes; each oven is different, and if you're a cook, you know that. Keep checking the slices until you consider them to have enough consistency by themselves. When you remove them and let them cool at room temperature, they should maintain their tube shape without the toothpick.
- With your masterpiece bread prepared, it's time to cut the tomato into eighths or, if you prefer, into little squares. Then, place it in a container with extra virgin olive oil and salt to soak for about 15 minutes. Even with a supermarket refrigerator tomato, this step can be skipped, but the dish will lose some consistency. Now let's get to work!
- Now, take advantage of those 15 minutes to take out the iberian acorn-fed ham sliced with a knife, which you probably have in the fridge. Alternatively, slice some ham if you have a piece of iberian acorn-fed ham at home. Actually, it works out perfectly that the tomato marinates for 15 minutes, as that's usually the time the ham freshly out of the fridge needs to regain its oils and therefore its flavor. This also allows us to separate the slices without them breaking.
- For assembling the dish, place the bread tube in the center and fill it using a spoon with the tomato, which you've previously drained of oil, as the oil's moisture could wet the bread, causing it to lose its needed crunchiness for a texture play.
- Finally, carefully place the iberian acorn-fed ham on top of the bread tube and tomato. You can add some thyme for aroma, preferably in sprigs, so those who wish to remove it can do so without it being overly invasive. If you've chosen a ham from Huelva or Cordoba, you probably won't need to aromatize it with thyme, but go ahead and use it as it adds color and as we know, we eat with our eyes...
