Alentejo Food: What to Eat in Portugal's South

The Alentejo, Portugal’s vast rural south, has some of the country’s most distinctive cooking: humble bread-based dishes, black pork fattened on acorns, rich stews, sheep’s cheeses, olive oil and wines aged in clay pots. Here’s what to eat when you visit.

Quick answer: try porco preto (acorn-fed black pork), carne de porco à alentejana (pork with clams), migas (fried bread with pork), açorda (bread soup with coriander and egg), ensopado de borrego (lamb stew), and local cheeses such as Serpa and Évora. Wash it down with Alentejo red wine.

Dishes to try

• Porco preto: Iberian black pork, often grilled as plumas or secretos (tender cuts).
• Carne de porco à alentejana: marinated pork cubes with clams and potatoes.
• Migas: fried bread mixed with garlic, olive oil and often pork or asparagus.
• Açorda alentejana: a bread soup with garlic, coriander, olive oil and a poached egg.
• Ensopado de borrego: lamb stew served over bread.
• Gaspacho alentejano: a cold summer soup.
• Sericaia: a cinnamon egg pudding often served with plums from Elvas. See Elvas.

Cheese, oil and wine

• Cheese: Serpa, Évora and Nisa sheep’s cheeses. See Portuguese cheese.
• Olive oil: the Alentejo produces much of Portugal’s olive oil.
• Wine: big, ripe reds and the ancient tradition of vinho de talha, fermented in clay amphorae. See Alentejo wine tours.

Where to eat

Évora has excellent restaurants, and village tascas across the region serve generous home cooking. See Évora and the Alentejo and Alentejo hotels.

More: what to eat in Portugal and Portugal’s wine regions.

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