In the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali begins his discussion on how to practice yoga with the word tapas -and he's not talking about Spanish cuisine! Sometimes tapas is translated as "learning from our suffering," but it basically means "to burn" in the way that you might burn away impurities by heating gold. This is why I often call yoga a form of alchemy.
Pan con tomate (bread with tomato) proves it doesn't take a long list of fancy ingredients or complicated cooking techniques to create a mouthwatering dish. Known as pa amb tomàquet in Catalan, this simple tapa hails from Catalonia in northeastern Spain. It's said pan con tomate originated as a way for peasants to moisten dry bread while utilizing the region's abundance of tomatoes and keep hunger at bay between meals. Nowadays, it's regarded as a traditional tapa in both Catalan and Spanish cuisine, working just as well as a homemade snack as it does in a fancy establishment.