Stracciatella (soup)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Type | Soup |
|---|---|
| Course | Primo (Italian course) |
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Region or state | |
| Main ingredients | Meat broth, beaten egg |
Stracciatella (Italian: [strattʃaˈtɛlla]; in Italian, a diminutive derived from the verb stracciare ('to shred')), also known as stracciatella alla romana, is an Italian soup consisting of meat broth and small shreds of an egg-based mixture, prepared by drizzling the mixture into boiling broth and stirring. It is popular around the city of Rome, in Lazio. A similar soup, called zanzarelli, was described by Martino da Como in his 15th-century manual The Art of Cooking. Other variants exist.
Traditionally stracciatella alla romana used to be served at the start of Easter lunches.[1][2] Stracciatella alla romana is traditionally prepared by beating eggs and mixing in grated Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon zest, and sometimes semolina; this mixture is then gently drizzled into boiling meat broth, while stirring so as to produce little shreds (stracciatelle) of cooked egg in the soup.[3] The resulting soup can be served in bowls containing a few thin slices of toasted bread, with additional parmesan grated on top.[2]
According to Ada Boni, stracciatella alla romana used to be scented with marjoram.[2] Other traditional Italian and Italian-American recipes suggest garnishing with chopped parsley.[4][5][self-published source] Some American variations of the soup incorporate spinach as a main ingredient.[6][7]
A recipe for a spicy soup made with eggs and broth that bears similarities to the modern-day stracciatella was recorded as early as the 15th century by Martino da Como in his Libro de Arte Coquinaria (The Art of Cooking) under the name of zanzarelli.[8][n 1] The traditional preparation of stracciatella is also rather similar to that of sciusceddu, a rich festive soup from Messina, Sicily, that may be a cousin of the Roman dish.[9][n 2]
Legacy
Stracciatella soup inspired the gelato flavour of the same name, which was created in 1961 by a restaurateur in the northern city of Bergamo, who claimed he had grown tired of stirring eggs into broth to satisfy customers from Rome.[11]
