Italian Pastina Soup
A soup that cures all sicknesses through strong hearty flavors once called “Italian Penicillin.”
you're making mealtime meaningful.
I grew up in an Italian household as I’ve said many times before and this was one of those recipes I would always see in the rotation. My mom loved to brew up this soup on a chilly winter day or as soon as one of me or my siblings get sick. We called it “magic” soup because it just made us feel better. I think we just loved that our Mom cooked us something that we asked for. She is such a cool mom for that. I can still remember the smell of the house when I would get home from school and smell this when I walked in. It would always follow with a question “Okay, who’s sick now?”
As I got older I learned how easy and basic this soup was to make on my own. It’s a classic chicken soup with standard mirepoix and a few flavor enhancers like lemon and parsley. Trust me this is a very approachable recipe that will help set a standard for your future soup recipes.
If you don’t know this already then you should. The best broth-y soups are ones that sit on the stove and simmer for hours. This allows the vegetables and flavors in the soup to slowly breakdown into the soup for the highly concentrated hearty broth. I’ve also found that after about thirty minutes of simmering you will get about 80% of the way to the same flavor profile as a 12-hour simmer. 80% is good enough for me in a pinch, but to each their own.
I personally make this soup nowadays whenever I am making my own chicken or vegetable stock. The stock simmers away in my giant stock pot that I let roll for hours. You truly can’t beat a homemade stock with anything store-bought. After the broth is made all you have to do is add your pasta, spices, and fresh ingredients. Voila!
Italian Pastina Soup
Yield(s): Serves 4
15m prep time
30m cook time
40m inactive
Diet: Low-Calorie, Low-Fat
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup celery, finely diced
- 1/2 cup carrot, finely diced
- 1 cup onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 -4 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped
- 1 cup pastina
- 1 quart chicken bone broth
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat a soup pot with 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium-high heat.
- Once the butter melts, add the celery, carrot, onion, and garlic to the pot. Cook until the vegetables soften, around 8 - 12 minutes.
- Add the fresh thyme, bone broth, and turmeric to the pot. Bring mixture up to a simmer then reduce it to a low. Let the vegetable simmer on low for 20 - 30 minutes.
- Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth and all vegetables have integrated into the broth. Taste for seasoning.
- Add pastina to the broth and bring it to a rolling simmer. Let simmer covered until the pasta is fully cooked then remove from heat.
- Squeeze half a lemon, parsley, and sprinkle in parmesan cheese. Let the soup cool for 5 minutes before ladling in a little bit of broth into the beaten egg while stirring to temper the egg. Add the mixture to the soup.
- Garnish with extra cheese and cracked black pepper, enjoy!