Stracciatella (soup)
{{Short description|Italian soup}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2024}}
{{Italics title}}
{{Infobox food
| name = Stracciatella
| image = Straciatella - bowl.JPG
| image_size =
| caption =
| alternate_name =
| country = Italy
| region = {{plainlist|
}}
| creator =
| course = Primo (Italian course)
| type = Soup
| served =
| main_ingredient = Meat broth, beaten egg
| variations =
| no_recipes = true
}}
Stracciatella ({{IPA|it|strattʃaˈtɛlla|lang}}; in Italian, a diminutive derived from the verb {{Lang|it|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.
Description
image:Stracciatella_soup_example.jpg
Traditionally stracciatella alla romana used to be served at the start of Easter lunches.{{cite book|last1=Facaros|first1=Dana |last2=Pauls|first2=Michael |title=Central Italy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_k05jrTW_8C&pg=PA60 |year=2003 |publisher=Cadogan Guides |location=London |isbn=978-1-86011-112-9| page=60}}{{cite book |last=Boni |first=Ada |title=La cucina regionale |editor=Giaquinto, Maria Matilde |year=1985| publisher=Newton Compton |location=Rome |page=92 |chapter=Stracciatella alla romana}} 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.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Stracciatella |encyclopedia=La cucina del Bel Paese |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M_vYmUgN3e0C&pg=PA179| series=Touring Club Italiano, Accademia Italiana Della Cucina| year=2003 |publisher=Touring Editore |language=it |isbn=978-88-365-2957-5 |page=179}} In English: {{cite book|title=La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy|year=2009|publisher=Rizzoli Publications|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780847831470/page/180 180]|isbn=978-0-8478-3147-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780847831470/page/180}} 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.{{cite book |last=Spagni |first=Silvia |title=L'arte di cucinare alla romana |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7Uu8Zgg6dgC&pg=PT115 |year=2010 |publisher=Newton Compton Editori |language=it |isbn=978-88-541-2879-8 |pages=115–116 |chapter=Stracciatella}}{{cite book|last=Melfi|first=Rick |title=The Food Pusher's Cookbook: Recollections and Recipes of an Italian American Tradition|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lvcFAaYpbGsC&pg=PA43|year=2011|publisher=Xlibris Corporation| isbn=978-1-4567-6950-5| page=43| chapter=Stracciatella}}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}} Some American variations of the soup incorporate spinach as a main ingredient.{{cite news |last=Costikyan|first=Barbara|title=Beautiful Soup|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WeUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48|access-date=8 October 2013|newspaper=New York Magazine|date=11 February 1980}}{{cite web|last=Lehrer|first=Silvia|title=Ragged Egg and Spinach Soup|url=http://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/ragged-egg-and-spinach-soup|others=From Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island's East End by Silvia Lehrer (Running Press Book Publishers, 2011)|publisher=SplendidTable.org|access-date=8 October 2013}}
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.{{cite book|editor1=Ballerini, Luigi |editor2=Barzini, Stefania |editor3=Parzen Jeremy |title=The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Efw2S_NekYC&pg=PA151| pages=64, 151| year=2005| publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92831-2 |chapter=Zanzarelli}}{{#tag:ref| Martino worked in Rome for some time for Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan, a purveyor of lavish banquets. As translated by Jeremy Parzen, Martino's recipe for zanzarelli reads: "To make ten servings: take eight eggs and a half libra of grated cheese, and a grated loaf of bread and mix together. Then take a pot of meat broth made yellow with saffron and place over heat; and when it begins to boil, pour the mixture into a pot and stir with a spoon. When the dish has begun to thicken, remove from heat and serve in bowls, topped with spices." A "green" variant of the soup omits the saffron. |group= n}} 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.{{cite book|last=Coria|first=Giuseppe |title=Sicily: Culinary Crossroads| year=2008| publisher=Oronzo Editions| location=New York, New York| isbn=978-0-9797369-3-3| page=37}}{{#tag:ref|Another soup dish traditionally served at Easter, sciusceddu (also known as sciuscellu or ciuscello), is prepared by dropping a mixture of beaten eggs and sieved ricotta cheese into broth containing small meatballs made with minced veal, caciocavallo cheese, breadcrumbs and parsley.{{cite encyclopedia| title=Sciusceddu| encyclopedia=La cucina del Bel Paese|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M_vYmUgN3e0C&pg=PA176| series=Touring Club Italiano, Accademia Italiana Della Cucina| year=2003| publisher=Touring Editore| language=it| isbn=978-88-365-2957-5| page=176}} In English: {{cite book|title=La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy|year=2009|publisher=Rizzoli Publications|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780847831470/page/178 178]|isbn=978-0-8478-3147-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780847831470/page/178}} |group= n}}
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.{{cite news |title=Lutto nel mondo della ristorazione – È morto Enrico Panattoni |url=http://www.ecodibergamo.it/stories/Cronaca/903305/ |access-date=11 January 2016 |newspaper=L'Eco di Bergamo|date=4 October 2013|language=it}}
See also
{{Portal|Italy|Food}}
Notes
{{Reflist|group=n}}