Not everything needs to be complicated to be extraordinary. This is the simplest dish I know -- and one of the most delicious. Bread, tomato, oil, salt, oregano. Five ingredients. Five minutes. A whole lifetime of memories.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 4 thick slices of rustic semolina bread (ideally from San Marco in Lamis, or Pugliese-style bread at least a day old)
- 2 large ripe tomatoes (beefsteak or San Marzano)
- Extra virgin olive oil from the Gargano -- generous
- Fine salt to taste
- Dried Gargano oregano -- generous
Method
Toast the bread (optional)
If the bread is fresh you can use it as it is. If it is day-old -- even better -- toast it lightly on a griddle or in the oven for a few minutes until the crust is crispy. This step brings out everything.
Rub with tomato
Cut the tomato in half. Rub the cut side directly onto the surface of the bread, pressing firmly and spreading the juice and pulp across the whole slice. The bread should turn red and moist -- do not spare the tomato.
Season
Pour a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil over the entire surface. Dust with fine salt and dried oregano in generous quantities. Gargano oregano is particularly fragrant -- do not be afraid to use plenty.
Eat immediately
This dish does not wait. Eat it as soon as it is made, while the oil is still glistening and the tomato still fresh. Standing, sitting, outdoors. It does not matter how -- what matters is now.
My tips
- If you cannot find San Marco in Lamis bread, good Pugliese-style semolina bread works well -- soft sandwich bread does not work, it absorbs everything and falls apart.
- The tomato must be perfectly ripe -- juicy, sweet, with deep red flesh.
- The extra virgin olive oil must be good -- this is the moment when you can truly taste the difference between a mediocre and an extraordinary oil.
- Gargano oregano is different from the supermarket variety -- if you can source it, it will change everything.
- Do not add garlic -- this Gargano version does not include it. It is already perfect as it is.
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