I’m so not done with Spanish food. I hope you’re all OK with that — I don’t want to be ‘that’ girl who goes abroad for a wee bit and then bores everyone to tears with all the wonderful things about her “second home“. But I didn’t even get halfway through my little bucketlist, so I hope you’ll indulge me (plus it will be tasty, I promise).

It was certainly a bit of an adjustment to go from gallivanting around Europe to be living back at home and working full time. Some things, though — my dog’s wagging tail, a guaranteed hot shower (no broken bombona, hurrah!), family board games, sunny evenings at the tennis courts — made falling back into the routine a happy transition.

So I might not be able to buy cheap plane tickets to fly across Europe on a whim for the forseeable future, but it’s the little things that life is made up of, right? I file this Spanish breakfast (or snack) into that folder of simple pleasures: tostada con tomate y aceite; toast with tomatoes and olive oil. Usually served with your café con leche, maybe some ham, and preferably a chair in the sun.
Ana, the lovely lady who worked the cafeteria counter at the school I worked at, laughed when I asked her what was in the “mermelada de tomate” (tomato jam, all I could come up with with my beginner Spanish) at the beginning of the school year. She handed me a tomato and said “Sólo esto.”, “Just this.” …silly canuck.1. Pick you favourite bread, toast it to your liking.
2. Using a fork, prick holes into your toasted bread so that the olive oil can sink in there nicely.
3. Pick one nice looking tomato. Cut the stem and core out of the tomato. Using a hand blender (the easiest way, I find), in a tall container/bowl (you don’t want tomato juice flying everywhere), blend your tomato until smooth. If you don’t have a hand blender, you can also just use a hand grater and grate your tomato over the toast.
4. Spread the puréed tomato over the toast and sprinkle with a little salt, to taste.
Buen provecho!