The World’s Most Basic Soup

ZOUPA

Makes 4 servings

This dish is the apotheosis of the trinity of Mediterranean flavors—wheat, wine, and olive oil. “It’s just like the akraton — the breakfast of bread and undiluted wine—that the ancients used to eat.” At first I thought it was one of those dishes, like so many others, lost to time, but I found it in Pylaro, the island’s cheese-making area in the North, where it is the lunchtime meal during the olive harvest. Zoupa is still eaten in Lefkada, too, where the wine used is the dark and tannic local variety made from the vartzami grape.

Ingredients:

• Four 1-inch slices stale rustic bread
• 1 1/3 cups dark, dry red wine
• 1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Toast the bread, preferably over coals or on a grill. Warm the wine slightly.

2. Place each piece of bread in a dish, pour on ample olive oil (4 to 5 tablespoons per slice), and then drizzle into each bowl about 1/3 cup of warmed wine. Let the bread soak a bit and serve.