Açorda à alentejana: Alentejo bread soup

Ingredients

• 400 g pão alentejano or dense country sourdough, stale, sliced
• 4 eggs, raw, at room temperature
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 litre water
• 80 ml Portuguese extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for finishing
• 1 large bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped, stems and leaves
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, or to taste

Method

1. 1
   Bring the water to a full boil in a saucepan. Add the crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, and roughly chopped cilantro. Remove from the heat and allow to infuse for two to three minutes. The liquid should smell powerfully of garlic and fresh herb.
2. 2
   Divide the stale bread slices among four deep soup bowls. The bread must be genuinely stale and dense — fresh bread will collapse on contact with the liquid into an undifferentiated paste.
3. 3
   Crack one raw egg directly onto the bread in each bowl, keeping the yolk intact. This is where the dish lives or dies: the egg is not poached separately — the boiling liquid poured over it in the bowl is the only heat it receives, and the yolk must remain liquid when broken at table.
4. 4
   Return the infused liquid to a full rolling boil and ladle it immediately over the egg and bread in each bowl. Pour in a single confident motion to deliver sufficient heat to the egg white. The white should be just opaque and set at the edges; the yolk should visibly tremble and remain runny at its centre.
5. 5
   Finish each bowl with a thread of good Portuguese extra-virgin olive oil poured directly over the surface. The oil is not a garnish — it is a primary flavour. Serve at once, while the liquid is still steaming.