Traditional tortilla with bread and tomato

Listen carefully, because I'm not bringing you a tortilla with tomato-smeared bread, but the traditional recipe for tomato bread omelette. I love it!

There are long-standing recipes that are being lost, and if there's something we try to do at Claudia&Julia it's to do our bit so that doesn't happen. Today, we want to give voice to a tortilla as easy to make as it is delicious, and also curious! Who would have told me that the bread wouldn't be a side or base for the omelette, but that we'd put it inside? And well spread with tomato!

This tomato bread omelette is a traditional Catalan recipe, but nowadays it's hardly known and you rarely find it. But that has to change, because it's a surprisingly delightful way to have an omelette: the flavor of the tomato-smeared bread is absorbed into the omelette, but you don't notice it in texture, since you simply get a fluffier omelette without perceiving the bread as such. Curious and delicious.

For me, without a doubt, it took me back to the tortilla sandwiches with tomato-smeared bread my mother used to make when I was little (But this time there was no sandwich, it was all omelette!), and I suddenly had an incredible urge to start trying the thousand and one recipes using this one as a base: if you add cheese or ham to today's mixture, for example, that omelette will be delicious too.

Will you dare to try it? You'll see that its lightness and flavor will surprise you so much you'll want to talk about it to everyone, and that's how together we'll help this traditional recipe live on forever.

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 XL eggs (or more if you want to make it larger)
• 1 large slice of country-style bread or 2 medium slices
• 1 juicy tomato (for spreading or hanging)
• Salt
• Mild olive oil

Preparation

1. Cut the tomato in half and spread it on the slice or slices of bread on both sides.
2. If you wish, remove the crust (the edges of the bread) - honestly, once later moistened with the egg it becomes soft and it's barely noticeable, but some may prefer to remove it).
3. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil on one side of the bread, and cut the bread into small pieces (about 1 or 2 cm).
4. Heat a De Buyer cast-iron omelette pan.
5. In a bowl, beat the 3 eggs, add a pinch of salt per egg, and add the chopped bread. Stir so the bread soaks up the egg well.
6. Pour a drizzle of olive oil into the pan and pour in the mixture. Make the omelette, flipping it when you think necessary to cook both sides, and transfer to a plate when the omelette is done. You'll see it's ready in a few minutes.
7. Enjoy! Served with a salad, it's a perfect dinner.

Notes:

• If you want to make a larger omelette, simply double the quantities.
• If you want to vary it, add grated cheese to the egg and bread mixture — it will be delicious. You can play with mild cheeses, stronger cheeses (even Roquefort will be a definite success) or a mix of them.
• Other delicious and quick variations can be to add cured meats you have at home: ham, cooked ham, chorizo... Ingredients that will help intensify the omelette and pair perfectly with both the egg and a good tomato-smeared bread. Any recommendations?
• If you want to give it a different touch, add a bit of oregano to the egg... it'll be a pizza-flavored omelette.