Stracciatella soup
The name comes from the Italian "stracciare" — to tear into shreds — and that is how the soup looks: delicate ribbons of set egg in a clear broth. Pouring in the egg takes three minutes but demands precision — the broth must barely tremble, never boil, or the egg breaks into small hard grains instead of silky threads.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Egg mixture 5 min
- Heating the broth 6 min
- Pouring in a stream 3 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneChoose a good broth
The base is just broth, eggs and parmesan, so the broth is the dish, not the background. Homemade stock or a good chicken broth decides the flavour; with a stock cube the soup turns out salty and bland, and nothing can fix that afterwards.
Ingredients: 1200 ml chicken stock · ¼ bunch parsley · 20 g parmesan · ½ tsp pepper · ½ tsp salt
Make the egg mixture
Whisk the eggs with parmesan, semolina, nutmeg and lemon zest. The mixture should be thick and uniform. The semolina is not a filler — it thickens the mixture, so the ribbons hold together and do not break up into specks in the broth.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 80 g parmesan · 2 tbsp semolina · 1 pinch nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon
A thick, uniform mixture — no separate strands of white.Heat the broth to a tremble
Bring the broth to the boil, then lower the heat until the surface only just trembles. Boiling broth sets the egg instantly into hard lumps; a barely trembling one lets it stretch into threads.
Ingredients: 1200 ml chicken stock · ¼ bunch parsley · 20 g parmesan · ½ tsp pepper · ½ tsp salt
Pour in a stream and stir
Stir the broth with a fork to set it swirling and pour in the egg mixture in a thin stream, stirring gently throughout. The ribbons form within seconds. Cook 2 minutes more and take off the heat.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 80 g parmesan · 2 tbsp semolina · 1 pinch nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon
TipPour slowly, over the tines of a fork or from a spouted jug. Tipped in at once the mixture sets into a single omelette.
Swirling broth stretches the egg into threads instead of setting it into a lump.Season and serve at once
Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, scatter with parsley and the parmesan set aside for sprinkling. Serve immediately — after a few minutes the ribbons sink and the soup loses its lightness.
Ingredients: 1200 ml chicken stock · ¼ bunch parsley · 20 g parmesan · ½ tsp pepper · ½ tsp salt
Before you start
With spinach
Drop a handful of baby spinach into the broth just before the egg goes in. A popular home variation.
Without semolina
Replace it with a spoonful of breadcrumbs or leave it out. The ribbons are finer but also more fleeting.
Do not reheat
Reheated stracciatella turns the ribbons into rubbery lumps. This is a soup to eat straight away — luckily it takes a quarter of an hour.
