Pan con tomate

Pan con tomate

Assuming toasted bread rubbed with garlic and ripe tomato, finished with olive oil and salt, sometimes topped with ham.

Pan con tomate is raw tomato, garlic, salt and olive oil on crisp bread, so the wine needs bright acidity to match the tomato and freshness for the oil. Raw tomato makes firm tannin taste metallic, and oak weighs down something this simple.

Pairs Perfectly. Cava, Penedès, Spain. Crisp, lemony bubbles with a light savoury edge, the Catalan wine for the Catalan dish. The bubbles scrub the olive oil and the acidity keeps pace with the tomato, and it is easy on the pocket.

Pairs Well. Pale Rioja rosado, Spain, in the traditional style. Dry and savoury with red berry and a hint of nuttiness, good with tomato and with ham if it is on top.

Pairs Well. Grillo from Sicily, Italy. Lemon, a little salinity and fresh acidity, a southern white made for tomatoes and olive oil.

Worth Seeking Out

Listán Negro from the Canary Islands, Spain. A light, peppery red from volcanic soils with almost no tannin, so the raw tomato stays sweet rather than metallic.

Avoid

Tannic reds and heavily oaked whites. Tannin turns metallic against raw tomato and oak smothers a light snack.

Failing That

A Pecorino, Abruzzo, Italy.

If All Else Fails

Barbera d'Asti, Piedmont.

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