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1
Pour the olive oil into a wide, heavy pot set over a low flame. Add the garlic and cook gently, turning occasionally, until it is soft, translucent, and fragrant but not coloured — the oil should be visibly infused with the garlic's perfume.
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2
Add the tomatoes, raise the heat to medium, and break them down with a wooden spoon. Simmer steadily, stirring from time to time, until the tomatoes have collapsed entirely into a rough, rust-red sauce and most of their liquid has evaporated — the surface should look dense and glossy, not watery.
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3
Add the torn bread to the pot and stir it through the tomato base. Pour in the warm broth or water in stages, stirring continuously. This is where the dish lives or dies: the bread must be worked steadily into the tomato with enough liquid and patience for it to dissolve completely into a thick, porridge-like mass — not a chunky soup, not a thin broth, but a cohesive, rust-coloured purée that holds its own weight. A spoon pressed into the surface should stand upright.
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4
Remove the garlic cloves if whole and discard. Tear the basil leaves directly into the pot and stir through. Taste and adjust salt. The flavour should be an amplified, concentrated essence of tomato underpinned by the wheat sweetness of the dissolved bread.
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5
Ladle into wide bowls. Pour a generous thread of raw extra-virgin Tuscan olive oil over each portion. Serve warm or at room temperature — never from the refrigerator.