Type | Soup |
---|---|
Course | First course |
Place of origin | Italy |
Region or state | Lazio |
Main ingredients | Meat broth, beaten egg |
Stracciatella (Italian pronunciation: [strattʃaˈtɛlla]; in Italian, a diminutive derived from the verb stracciare ("to shred"), meaning "a little 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 Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy. 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.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. The resulting soup can be served in bowls containing a few thin slices of toasted bread, with additional parmesan grated on top.
According to Ada Boni, stracciatella alla romana used also to be scented with marjoram. Other traditional Italian and Italian-American recipes suggest garnishing with chopped parsley. Some American variations of the soup incorporate spinach as a main ingredient.