Stracciatella, a traditional Italian egg drop soup, is a simple and comforting dish made with broth, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and lemon zest or juice. It was once considered a poor man’s meal but has gained popularity as a delicious and easy-to-make dinner option. Some variations include adding vegetables, pesto, or pasta, and it can be adapted for those on a gluten-free diet.
Roman egg soup, stracciatella, is a simple and elegant dish that was once more common on dinner tables than it has become in more modern times. Once tasted, the dish often converts lovers of Italian food and Italian soups into the folds of cooks who willingly prepare it again and again as a type of comfort food. In some families, stracciatella was served at the beginning of formal meals. The Italian egg drop soup’s few ingredients, however, speak to its more rudimentary appeal, with only a handful of ingredients required, ease of preparation, and memorable flavor.
One of the main ingredients in stracciatella is broth, and several types of broth can be used, including chicken broth, reduced sodium chicken broth, and homemade beef broth, Brodo di Carne, made from turkey or beef. The basic ingredients of stracciatella also include eggs, salt, Parmesan cheese, and grated lemon zest or lemon juice, with the optional addition of chopped parsley in some Italian egg soup recipes. Pepper and grits are options, and some cooks prefer the addition of nutmeg and spinach or Swiss chard.
In some quarters this traditional Italian soup was once thought of as a meal to be eaten only for the poor, or cucina povera. The soup’s name is based on the appearance of the eggs after a cook tosses them into the broth. They look like rags, or small torn rags that some say look like ribbons, leading to them being known in some quarters as “torn soup”. The faster a cook wields the whisk, the smaller the “torn rags” become. Stracciatella can be an easy light dinner after a long day of work or childcare, and a side of sourdough or Italian bread will round out the meal.
Some cooks like to get a little creative with their stracciatella recipes. They add all sorts of vegetables to the broth, including squash, celery, peppers, tomatoes or carrots. Others like to fill their soup with a little pesto or cut up chunks of basil, or they include a small pastina or other type of pasta. Some families who must follow a gluten-free diet have adapted the recipe to make it edible for those who must avoid gluten in their diets.
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