Stracciatella in Brodo

Egg and parmesan whisked into simmering broth so it shreds into rags.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, chicken broth, parmesan whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 1.2 litres clear beef or chicken broth
• 4 eggs
• 80 g parmesan, grated
• nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon fine semolina, optional
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper

Method

1. The broth must be genuinely clear. This soup has four ingredients and nothing to hide a cloudy one behind.
2. Beat the eggs with the parmesan, nutmeg, pepper and the semolina if using, to a loose paste.
3. Bring the broth to a bare simmer — moving, not rolling.
4. POUR THE EGG MIXTURE IN IN A THIN STREAM WHILE WHISKING THE BROTH HARD. The egg sets on contact and the whisk tears it into shreds. 'Stracciatella' means little rags and that is the whole dish.
5. THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF A ZUPPA PAVESE, where a whole egg is kept intact and poached by the broth, and of a sciusceddu, where the egg sets as a lid in the oven. Here it is deliberately broken up.
6. Take it off the heat after 30 seconds. Boiled on, the rags toughen into threads.
7. Check the salt and serve at once, with more parmesan.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes