Stracciatella – Make This Wholesome Soup in 15 Minutes
Welcome to the twenty-fourth instalment of my series where I test out recipes from an obscure 1990s Italian cookbook. This time, I tried a dish from the ‘Soups’ section: Stracciatella.
Stracciatella.
A soft cheese made with buffalo milk?
A creamy, chocolate flecked ice cream?
Neither.
I’m talking about the criminally underrated Italian egg drop soup – chicken broth, beaten eggs, parsley, parmesan, and pastina.
It makes for a lovely starter, equally light and hearty and what I always crave when I’m a bit under the weather. And I’m serious when I say it really is simple and quick to make – unlike all these ‘easy’ hangover meals which require you to turn the kitchen upside down and actually end up taking an hour…
Stracciatella soup is one of my favourite dishes – I grew up eating it and I’m here to advocate fiercely on its behalf. And I actually have to give this cursed Italian cookbook some credit for including it.
It originates from Lazio, the region my Italian side of the family is from, and like many Italian classics, it’s a simple yet delicious concept.
Although, I was quite confused to discover the absence of baby pasta (pastina) in the book’s recipe, which is synonymous with the stracciatella I know. I wasn’t aware that most ‘traditional’ versions are actually absent of pasta in any form.
Stracciatella does, however, have a classically clear broth, and the book’s version was quite the opposite. My doubts towards using chicken thighs were confirmed when I was left with a much cloudier broth – still delicious, but not really the proper kind for this soup…
I gave it the recipe another go, but with my own chicken broth (recipe coming soon), using the carcass of a cooked roast chicken, some carrot, onion, celery, and herbs, and boiled it away for a while in the slow cooker overnight for maximum flavour.
The general online consensus is that raw, skinless bones should be used, but let’s face it – unless you have the luxury of a good butcher round the corner, this isn’t the easiest thing to acquire. And you probably don’t want to go to the bother of hacking up and skinning a whole chicken in your kitchen and giving your housemates or relatives a fright!
But the beauty of stracciatella is that you don’t have to go all out with homemade stock. If you do have the time, of course, I recommend you do so, but for the sake of convenience, a good quality shop-bought version still does the trick, particularly if you’re feeling rather lousy and in need of a pick me up. Just dissolve a stock cube in some boiling water, cook in a pan with the pastina, finish with a beaten egg, and you’ll still have yourself a quick and hearty bowl of stracciatella soup.
Overall, I can’t be too mad about the book’s version of stracciatella soup, but since the homemade broth wasn’t quite up to scratch, I have to give it a final rating of:
7/10
Whether you end up using a 12-hour broth or a 1 minute broth, I hope this recipe warms you up on a cold day or provides a temporary hangover cure:
Stracciatella – Italian Egg Drop Soup
Ingredients
- 1.5 litre clear chicken stock either homemade or instant
- 2 eggs
- 30 g parmesan finely grated, plus extra to serve
- handful parsley chopped, plus extra to serve
- 150 g baby pasta preferably stelline [see notes]
- Salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Place the stock in a large saucepan over a high heat and bring to the boil.
- While you wait for the stock to heat, lightly beat the eggs, parmesan, parsley, and a bit of pepper together in a small bowl. Set aside for later.
- Once the stock is boiling, add the pasta and reduce the heat slightly. Cook according to the manufacturer directions [see notes]
- Once the pasta has cooked, add the beaten eggs in a slow stream, stirring as you do so. Heat for a few more minutes to allow the egg to cook through and remove from the heat.
- Season with salt to taste before serving into soup bowls with some extra parsley, grated parmesan, and freshly cracked black pepper.
Notes
- Stelline is stocked at most Italian delicatessens and some supermarkets, but if you can’t find it, any kind of small sized pasta will do.
- I find it’s best to cook pasta according to the directions of the brand you’re using. Take one piece of pasta out of the pot and bite into it. The texture should still be firm but not hard or chalky – the term for this is ‘al dente’. Whatever you do, don’t overcook the pasta – it will turn soggy as it continues to cook in the hot broth.
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