Pan con tomate (sometimes written as pan tumaca) is one of the most distinctive dishes from my native Catalonia. However, while it’s popularly believed to be a typical Catalan invention, there are different theories about its origin. In short: the tomato—the key ingredient—comes from the Americas and arrived in Spain in the 16th century, but it wasn’t until 1884 that references to this dish appeared in farmhouses, where people started rubbing stale bread (several days old) with tomato and a drizzle of olive oil to soften it. This was part of the traditional practice of making the most of every ingredient and wasting as little food as possible. Another theory, from southern Spain (specifically Murcia), suggests that workers from Murcia—who built the Barcelona subway—brought the dish to Barcelona in the 1920s. They grew tomatoes near their work sites and used them to soften the dry bread they had for lunch. But for me, it will always be Catalan!