Many traditional foods in Spain began with everyday needs. People needed to keep food longer. Basque fishermen put salt on fish called cod and dried it for long sea trips. In Castile-La Mancha, people made hard cheese from sheep’s milk. The cheese lasted longer than milk.
In hot Andalusia, people made cold tomato soups without a stove. They added old bread. In Extremadura, farmers and people with sheep also used hard bread. They broke it into small pieces and fried it with oil and other foods.
In the late 1800s, Italians brought ways to salt small fish called anchovies to Santoña. Later, people put the fish in cans. People now eat them all year.
