Catalan Tomato Bread

Toast a slice of crusty bread, rub it with garlic, add ripe tomato and finish with olive oil. The first bite brings a crisp edge, then tomato juice and a little warmth from the garlic. A few everyday ingredients give a meal a beginning worth looking forward to.

Food writer Nèstor Luján offered a modest explanation for tomato bread: when tomatoes were plentiful, households in rural Catalonia used their flesh and juice to soften dry bread. A familiar local favorite may once have begun as someone trying something with what was at hand.

That brings to mind the small bundle on the Fool's shoulder. In the traditional card, the young traveler looks into the distance, sunlight behind him and a dog leaping at his feet. He is curious about the road ahead, carrying what he already has. We often begin that way too: some experience, some anticipation, and much still untasted and unexplored.

Tomato bread meets the Fool in this willingness to travel lightly and try. Make one slice, taste whether the tomato is sweet enough and the garlic feels right, then decide what to do with the next. Each taste gives you a little more to go on.

If something has you both curious and hesitant, start with one small action you can manage. Pick up the bread. Let the first bite give you something to work with.