PREPONDERANT PRESENCE OF PORK, LAMB, GAME AND ESPECIALLY BREAD

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In this cuisine, the pork, the lamb, the game (rabbit, hare, partridge or wild boar) and especially the bread are heavily used. These ingredients are combined with the local spices and the various culinary herbs - which grow spontaneously in the plains and streams or are grown in the gardens and fields - and seasoned with the region’s excellent olive oil. Thus, famous dishes are born, such as the caldeirada de borrego (lamb stew), ensopado de borrego (fried lamb served on slices of bread and covered with onion and garlic sauce), lebre com feijão (hare with beans), javali estufado (stewed wild boar) and cozido de grão (chickpea stew).

 

You won’t find many typical Alentejo dishes that don’t include coriander, pennyroyal, mint, oregano, garlic or olive oil. Even rarer are those in which bread is not included. Bread is used in migas (a side dish), açordas (sliced bread with garlic, coriander, and poached eggs to which are added other ingredients, according to the type of açorda), lavadas (cold pressed tomato soup), gaspachos (another cold soup, made with raw vegetables), vinagradas (another type of side-dish) or masmarras (mashed bread and garlic, served hot). For the lovers of bread in generous doses, and in types of soup alone, we have the shark, panela (with different types of meat), purslane, tomato and pennyroyal soups.