What's in a name?
Stracciatella translates as little rags. And this applies to the three different preparations the name refers to. Most recent and most popular there is the ice cream. Lesser known but so worth trying is the Apulian cheese.
And then there is the egg drop soup. Whereas many countries have egg drop soup on their menu, stracciatella is pretty unique.
As it goes with popular dishes, there are a variety of true variants. All have a common base though. Eggs, cheese and broth.
Stracciatella alla Romana
Stracciatella alla Romana is, indeed, a Roman dish. And it is paradoxical, being a festive dish of the poor cuisine.
It all starts with chicken broth. If you need help with that, watch the video. The Roman recipe asks for eggs, parmesan cheese and some parsley. Whisk all together and add it to the boiling broth. Lower the heat and stir for about five minutes.
This soup comes with toasted bread. And is therefore a complete meal.
Variations on a theme
Easy tasty preparations spread fast. And as it spread, new ingredients were added to stracciatella.
In Emilia-Romagna the soup comes as soup from paradise. The name is promising but Artusi was not a fan. Here people add lemon zest, nutmeg and marjoram.
In the Marche region people add breadcrumb. Which thickens the soup notably.
Spain, Portugal and Greece have their egg drop soups. Though none uses cheese.
Stracciatella cheese
Stracciatella cheese is home to Andria, in Apulia. Originally this cheese was a byproduct of mozzarella cheese. Residue of mozzarella making are mixed with fresh cream.
This cheese comes in two forms. Or spreadable, as fresh cheese or covered with a solid skin. That is how it becomes burrata.
The absence of animal rennet in the preparation makes it a vegetarian cheese.
This is a cheese that, alas, cannot be stored.
Stracciatella ice cream
Most famous among the three stracciatella preparations is the ice cream. It is also the most recent.
In 1961 in Bergamo, Enrico Panattoni came up with the idea. The solidified chocolate resembled the rags found in the famous soup. And the name was there.
The other ingredients? Fresh milk, yolks, sugar and jelly.
Apart from ice cream there is also stracciatella cake.
