Açorda — Portugal

Açorda is a bread-based soup built around stale bread rather than around a starch cooked in the pot: the bread is torn into a bowl and softened by a hot, well-seasoned liquid poured over it just before serving. It sits between a soup and a thick panade, depending on how much liquid is added and how long the bread is left to soak. The dish is reported across Portugal, with regional variations, but the Alentejo version is widely cited as a benchmark: garlic, olive oil and fresh cilantro are pounded together with salt, then diluted with hot water or a light stock, poached eggs are added, and the mixture is poured over the broken bread. To prepare it, garlic cloves and a generous handful of cilantro are crushed in a mortar with coarse salt until they form a paste, then worked with olive oil until smooth. Hot water or stock is stirred in, the liquid is brought back to a simmer, and eggs are poached directly in it before the whole is ladled over cubed or torn stale bread so it can soften and thicken slightly before serving. Coastal and inland households vary the base recipe by adding fish, shellfish or leftover meat to the broth, or by leaving out the egg altogether, which shows how the same garlic-and-bread structure supports quite different versions depending on what is on hand that day.