Flip open a book of Spanish refranes (refrains) and by far the most common food word used is pan—bread. (One recent search turned up 169 refrains with pan.) There is just simply nothing more fundamental than bread. These sayings range from the commonly uttered “al pan, pan y al vino, vino” (to call “bread bread and wine wine,” essentially to call something by what it is, as in to “call a spade a spade”), to referring to someone as “un trozo de pan” (a piece of bread), which means a very good person.
There are about as many types of bread in Spain as there are refrains, from classic large, round country loaves to long, thin barras de pan (the word barra means “bar” or “rod”). Larger loaves are asked for by weight in the bakery, as in un cuarto, referring to a quarter of a kilo, or una barra de medio, referring to a half kilo loaf. Galician breads often include a bit of corn flour to keep them moist, while along the Mediterranean there is the wonderful coca de pan, a dense, and slightly chewy flat loaf rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt flakes before being baked.
Bread is seldom made at home, but rather bought in the bakery. And while day-old bread is rarely thrown away—there are numerous recipes that utilize it in this book—buying fresh bread every day remains important.
“Bueno es pan, y mejor, con algo que agregar.”—Bread is good, but better with something to go with it. Sometimes that means on the side, but other times it means cooked on top. Cocas are a flatbread popular in Catalunya topped with roasted peppers (see page 70), herring, spinach, or whatever can be rustled up and added. (Cocas can also be sweet; see page 289 for one with sugar, pine nuts, and anisette.)
Of course, old bread is not thrown away. Made from day-old bread, migas (see page 161)—which can be translated as “crumbs” and refers to the soft interior part of a loaf—is a famous shepherd’s dish prepared with chorizo, bacon, and garlic, and often eaten with a fried egg. Substantial and filling, migas and a glass of red wine are about all that is needed for a day’s work.
Or, as an old refrain goes, “Con pan y vino se anda el camino” (With bread and wine the trail can be walked). Shepherds know that one well.