Sopa de tomate alentejana
A country soup from the Alentejo, a region of heat, ripe tomatoes and stale bread that is not thrown away. Unlike thick Tuscan pappa it is brothy, with pieces of vegetable, and the bread goes into the bowl to be ladled over. Two rules: the onion and pepper stew slowly in plenty of olive oil, since they give the depth, and the eggs poach directly in the soup — they take on its flavour, and the broken yolk thickens the soup in the bowl.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Stewing the vegetables 25 min
- Cooking with tomatoes 20 min
- Eggs in the soup 8 min
- Serving over bread 5 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneStew the onion and pepper in oil
Heat the oil, add the onion, garlic, pepper and bay and stew 20 minutes over low heat, until soft and sweet, without colouring. The quantity of oil is deliberate — it carries the flavour of the whole soup.
Ingredients: 100 ml olive oil · 2 pcs onions · 4 cloves garlic · 1 pcs green pepper · 2 pcs bay leaves · 100 g chouriço
Twenty minutes in oil, no colouring.Fry the chouriço
Add the sliced chouriço and fry 3 minutes until it releases its red fat. That fat colours the whole soup and gives a smoky note. For a vegetarian version, use a teaspoon of smoked paprika instead.
Ingredients: 100 ml olive oil · 2 pcs onions · 4 cloves garlic · 1 pcs green pepper · 2 pcs bay leaves · 100 g chouriço
Peel and chop the tomatoes
Scald the tomatoes, peel them and cut into large dice, keeping the juice and seeds. Do not blend — Alentejo soup has pieces, not the texture of a purée.
Ingredients: 1200 g tomatoes · 700 ml water · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 2 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Cook with the tomatoes 20 minutes
Add the tomatoes, paprika and water, season and cook 20 minutes, until the tomatoes partly collapse. The soup should be thin and red, with visible pieces of tomato and pepper.
Ingredients: 1200 g tomatoes · 700 ml water · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 2 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Crack the eggs straight into the soup
Lower the heat until the soup only trembles and crack the eggs directly into the pot, one at a time. Cook covered 4–5 minutes, until the whites set and the yolks stay runny.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 4 pcs country bread · 3 tbsp coriander
Straight into the soup — the egg takes its flavour.Put the bread in the bowls
Lay a slice of stale bread in the bottom of each deep bowl. Stale, not fresh: fresh bread collapses into mush, while stale absorbs the soup and stays present.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 4 pcs country bread · 3 tbsp coriander
Ladle over the soup and set the egg on top
Ladle the soup with its vegetables and chouriço over the bread and set an egg on top, lifting it with a slotted spoon. Scatter with chopped coriander — the Alentejo uses it in soups as others use parsley.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 4 pcs country bread · 3 tbsp coriander
Bread beneath, soup and egg on top.Serve at once
Serve immediately, while the bread is still partly crisp and the yolk runny. Broken yolk stirred into the soup thickens it — which is exactly how it is eaten.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 4 pcs country bread · 3 tbsp coriander
Before you start
Coriander is regional here
The Alentejo is known for using coriander freely — in soups, with bread, with fish. If you dislike it, use mint; the Alentejo also uses poejo, pennyroyal. Parsley changes the soup's character.
Fresh tomatoes in summer, tinned in winter
With seasonal tomatoes the soup is sweet and full. In winter use good tinned tomatoes and a pinch of sugar. Pale supermarket tomatoes in January give a sour, watery soup.
The base keeps three days
The soup alone, without eggs or bread, keeps up to three days in the fridge — it is better on the second. Always poach the eggs fresh in the reheated soup just before serving.
