Italian Egg Drop Soup, Stracciatella Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is stracciatella made of? ›

Stracciatella is an Italian cheese product made from pulled mozzarella curds mixed with heavy cream. It is a type of pasta filata ("spun paste") cheese. The word stracciatella means “rag” and comes from the word strattore ("to stretch").

Stracciatella alla romana is the egg drop soup of Italian cooking. It starts with a rich meat broth (either chicken or beef), into which a beaten mixture of whole eggs and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is streamed in to form tiny, light, and flavorful clouds. A bit of fresh nutmeg and lemon complete the picture.

Meaning little rags, stracciatella is the name for three different Italian foods: soup, cheese, and gelato – the only thing they have in common is their name.

Stracciatella, The Soup

The recipe originated in Rome hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and is said to have been created when families had loads of leftover broth on Christmas from cooking their meat.

After dining out in Italy last summer and finding it served straight up – literally, Italians will eat this cheese as an appetizer with a spoon. Sometimes with accoutrements like nuts, jams or honey. I have since brought the Italian approach to stracciatella home.

While stracciatella ice cream traditionally involves milk ice cream and milk chocolate, modern variations can also be made with vanilla and dark chocolate.

Minestrone Soup - This is a traditional soup from Italy make with a combination of seasonal vegetables and pasta. It makes a complete meal with a slice of bread.

Minestrone is a classic Italian soup known worldwide as one of the best Italian soups. It's got a flavorful broth and a variety of slow-cooked vegetables like potatoes, peas, and carrots. Adding Italian sausage gives it a kick of flavor and a shot of protein, so it's a complete meal all by itself.

While it's composed of just three ingredients this traditional Italian soup is nourishing, richly flavored, and comes together in under 20 minutes. Stracciatella soup is made from a handful of pantry staples: chicken broth, eggs, Parmigiano cheese, and, sometimes, just a whisper of nutmeg.

If you love Italian food, you may have seen “stracciatella” on menus and in cookbooks. But what does stracciatella mean? The first thing you need to know is that this isn't one dish but three rather different ones: Stracciatella is an ice cream (gelato) flavor, an egg-drop soup, and a soft cheese.

How do you eat stracciatella? ›

Keep it simple and spoon some stracciatella onto a plate, add a sprinkling of sea salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and serve with crusty bread. Grill a slice of sourdough and top with diced tomato, chopped black olives, basil leaves and a spoonful of stracciatella.

From stracciato (“ripped, torn up”, past participle of stracciare) +‎ -ella, ultimately from Latin extrahō (“to extract, remove”).

The world's oldest recipe for soup is approximately 6000 years old. It apparently calls for hippopotamus, sparrows, vegetables, lentils and spices.

In the most basic sense, burrata is a thin layer of mozzarella housing a stracciatella filling. Stracciatella, in turn, is a combination of fresh cream and mozzarella shreds, likely a way for cheesemakers to utilize the scraps of the mozzarella-making process.

Substitutes. Fresh ricotta may be substituted for stracciatella as a condiment or an ingredient in a topping or filling. Stracchino, a fresh, unripened Italian cheese with a milky flavor and light tang, may also be used. For melting, such as on a pizza, fresh mozzarella or burrata can be used in place of stracciatella.

A stracciatella cheese's taste is similar to that of mozzarella cheese, mild and a little sour and acidic. Since it's made with cream, stracciatella tastes incredibly rich. The texture is silky, buttery, and creamy.

And Stracciatella is not cookies and cream. Stracciatella comes from the Italian word stracciato which translates to "torn apart'. In the culinary world, Stracciatella is one of Europe's most popular Ice cream flavours. Europe's version of 'chocolate chip' you could say.