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Special

Jacques Pépin Makes Tomato Toasts

Premiere: 12/2/2021 | 00:06:41 |

This recipe for tomato toasts with olives is inspired by Pépin's time in Spain. "Many years ago, I was in Spain, in Barcelona, and I had those tomato toast ... which I love, so I have done my own variation of it."

About the Episode

Serves 8 to 12 as an hors d’oeuvre

“When I visited Spain, I enjoyed the tomato toasts they made with ripe tomatoes rubbed over grilled bread. This is my version with a thick puree of tomatoes, drained of their liquid to concentrate the flavor. Remember to save the tomato liquid to drink or to make a cocktail.” —Jacques Pépin

Ingredients:

1 large tomato, about 10 ounces
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Half a baguette
Basil leaves, torn, for garnish
8 to 10 Kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Using a sharp knife, remove the stem and some of the skin from the top and base of the tomato. Slice in half crosswise, squeeze out the seeds, reserving the juice for the cook, and roughly chop the remaining flesh into 1-inch pieces. Place the tomato in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to process to a chunky pulp. Add salt and pepper and process again for 2 seconds. Pour the pulp into a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl to allow the clear tomato liquid to drain and the remaining pulp to thicken, 5 to 10 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and stir well.

To make the toasts, slice the baguette into about 15 thin slices, drizzle the lined baking sheet with the remaining oil and arrange the bread in a single layer on the foil. Press the bread into the oil, and then flip the slices and press again so that the bread is lightly coated with oil on both sides. Bake until the toasts are crispy and golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

To serve, spoon the tomato onto the toasts and top with basil and half an olive.

QUOTE

"I feel that if Jacques Pépin shows you how to make an omelet, the matter is pretty much settled. That’s God talking. "

— Anthony Bourdain

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT

(bright music) - Hi. I'm Jacques Pépin, and this is 'American Masters at Home.'

Many years ago, I was in Spain, in Barcelona, and I had those tomato toast, which were really ripe tomato and rubbed onto bread with a little bit of olive oil on top, which I love, so I have done my own variation of it.

What's important is to have really a ripe tomato.

And this one, I've had it a couple of days so that it could be ripe, and that tomato is about 10 ounces, eight, 10 ounces.

I cut a little bit of the skin here, but otherwise, I leave the skin on.

Here we are here.

And I will cut that tomato in half to kind of press out the seed, the seed and the juice, which I actually love to drink.

Over here.

Okay, this is for me, to drink.

And then the tomato themself, I'm gonna cut them into inches pieces, about.

Doesn't matter.

And I do that ahead.

You do that ahead.

You can also of course take the skin out, but frankly I like the skin in.

Give me more color and taste as well.

And I'm gonna put that in my small food processor here, and I'm gonna pulse it a few times.

Yeah.

I want it still a little bit, not totally liquid.

And in this, I'm gonna put a dash of salt.

Now maybe dash of pepper.

Of course I'm gonna put olive oil, but I will put it later.

Okay.

And then what I do with that, I put it into a sieve to get the tomato water out of it.

And it's not like the tomato juice that I have here.

It is basically white, like water, tomato water, and some chefs are using tomato water to do special cocktail with it.

So I removed some of that to get it slightly thicker for about five, 10 minutes.

With that, of course, some toast.

I like to use a baguette type of thing.

So here, not too thick.

And as you see, even with a knife like this, you have to start here, finish here, and apply pressure.

I probably have enough for like 15 or more toasts.

So what I do put olive oil on a non-stick kind of aluminum foil, like that.

I have a good probably tablespoon here of olive oil.

Put your bread in it.

Yeah.

I press it in the oil like this, and then turn it on the other side to adjust slightly the oil on both sides.

And that will go into the oven.

This will take probably 12, 15 minutes to get nicely brown and crisp, what you want.

Okay, and now my toasts are just out of the oven here, about 15 minutes at 350.

See the tomato has been resting here.

I want the puree thicker, as you can see.

And again, don't forget to drink that wonderful water underneath.

Yeah, we'll season that now with a little bit of olive oil, oh, maybe a tablespoon for all of this.

Mix it in there, and I can start.

A little bit on top, like this.

You don't put much.

I like to decorate the top of it with maybe a little piece of basil, basil leaves here.

And maybe to finish it up, I put half an olive in the center here.

Saltiness of the olives goes well with the oil and the tomato.

That's a wonderful dish to pass around with a drink.

You can taste the summer.

And here we have my tomato toast.

Happy cooking.

(bright music) Thank you for joining me.

For more, subscribe to this channel, or watch here.

Thank you, and happy cooking.

(bright music)