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Pa amb Xocolata

pa amb xocolata, oli i sal, Catalonia

馃嚜馃嚫 Spain Desserts easy 5 min prep 路 5 min cook serves 2 10 min start to table ~420 kcal per serving surprise

Dark chocolate on toast, then olive oil poured over the chocolate, then salt on top of that. It sounds like a dare, and it is what generations of Catalan kids ate after school.

A fruity, peppery olive oil and dark chocolate are both bitter, fat-carried flavors, so the oil rounds out the cocoa instead of fighting it, adding grassy and green-fruit notes a chocolate bar cannot. The salt does what salt always does to chocolate: it turns the volume up. Crusty bread keeps the whole thing from being rich for richness' sake, giving crunch and a plain wheat backdrop.

馃崼馃珤
The story

Across Spain, pan con chocolate was the classic merienda, the after-school snack, a chunk of chocolate tucked into a split roll when packaged spreads did not exist or cost too much. The Catalan version adds the region's two staples, olive oil and salt, the same treatment bread with tomato gets, and grandmothers served it on pa de coca or day-old country loaf.

It might have stayed a private childhood memory if chefs had not kept confessing to it. Ferran Adri脿, who grew up on chocolate sandwiches, put bread with chocolate, oil, and salt in The Family Meal, the book of staff dinners at elBulli, and Catalan chefs from Jordi Artal at Cinc Sentits in Barcelona to Jos茅 Chesa in Portland have built refined restaurant desserts on it. At home it remains a five minute job, eaten warm at the counter.

Fair warning: If you come expecting Nutella toast, the first bite of bitter chocolate and savory oil is jarring, and a cheap or stale olive oil makes it taste greasy instead of fruity.
The recipe

Ingredients

  • 4 slices crusty bread, cut about 1.5cm (1/2 inch) thickbaguette, pa de coca, or a country loaf; airy crumb and real crust matter
  • 60g (2 oz) dark chocolate, 60 to 70 percenta bar you can shave into thin shards, not chips
  • 4 tsp extra virgin olive oila fruity, peppery one; this is where quality shows
  • 2 pinches flaky sea saltsuch as Maldon or flor de sal

Method

  1. Toast the bread under a hot grill or broiler, or in a toaster, until golden and crisp at the edges.
  2. While it toasts, shave or break the chocolate into thin shards with a sharp knife.
  3. Lay the shards over the hot toast in a rough single layer, covering it edge to edge.
  4. If you want the chocolate soft, slide the toast back under the broiler for 20 to 30 seconds, just until glossy; it should slump, not liquefy.
  5. Drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil over each slice, enough to visibly pool in the chocolate.
  6. Finish each slice with a small pinch of flaky salt and eat while the toast is still warm.
Shopping notes
Everything is supermarket standard: any good bar of 60 to 70 percent chocolate works, and the bread just needs a real crust. Spend your money on the olive oil, ideally a Spanish Arbequina or another fruity extra virgin, because it is a lead ingredient here rather than a cooking fat.
Cross-checked against: grantourismotravels.com 路 pdxmonthly.com 路 reportergourmet.com
Kitchen notes

Cooked it? Say how it went. Tweaks, substitutions, honest verdicts, all welcome.

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