Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Stracciatella

I actually do cook food other than soups, but somehow soup seems to be the only thing I am motivated to write about.  Soon, it will be too swelteringly hot in my apartment to make soup, so please bear with me.  Alas, I present you with one more soup recipe: straciatella.  The recipe is the result of highly impromptu cooking.  Straciatella is a combination of chicken noodle and egg drop soup with an Italian flair.  I have been thinking about making it for a bit.  When it crossed my mind again this morning, I realized I had almost all of the ingredients already, including these darling, teeny, tiny star shaped noodles.  I bought them over two months ago, and I have been stewing over the perfect recipe to utilize them in.  Every time I open my kitchen cabinet and lay eyes on them, I find myself sighing dreamily.  They are just that cute.  Straciatella was the perfect excuse to eat them by the heaping spoonful.
In brief, my straciatella is a broth-based soup with the aforementioned noodles.  Before serving, an egg beaten with parmesan cheese is streamed into the soup, creating tender cheesy, eggy strands thoughout the hot broth.  I added carrots to the soup to flavor to the canned broth, and to prevent monotonous texture.  I seasoned it with cayenne, dried parsley, and black pepper.  Yum.

Stracciatella:

 - Bring 5 cups reduced sodium chicken broth to a simmer, and add 2 diced carrots and 2 whole cloves of garlic.  Season broth with a healthy dash of cayenne pepper, freshly ground pepper, and a tablespoon of dried parsley.
 - Allow carrots to simmer for 10 minutes, or until they start to become tender.  Add a half cup stelline (star-shaped) pasta.  Allow soup to simmer until the pasta is tender.
 - In the meantime, beat together one egg and 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese.  Season with black pepper.
 - When pasta and carrots are tender, reduce the heat until the soup is at a bare simmer.  Stir in egg mixture slowly so that strands of egg form.  Remove garlic cloves.  Garnish soup with extra parmesan and pepper, and enjoy.

3 comments:

  1. warms the heart and soul :)

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  2. HACKY CAMMISO! (best typo in the history of the world)

    PS Good simple quick recipe. You'd like it.

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  3. We are still doing the soup thing we are still getting the cold and the snow here up north, and we have all had enough. Well not enough soup yet. Thanks for a nice sounding recipe to try.

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