Pastina in brodo
Tiny pasta in a clear golden broth, for the days when nothing else appeals
Doubles in a slightly larger pan and nothing else changes. The broth keeps three days in the fridge. Cook the pasta fresh each time.
Every Italian grandmother has a version of this, and every Italian child has been handed a bowl of it when they were poorly. Tiny pasta shapes cooked in good chicken broth until they swell and soften, then a spoon of Parmesan and a slip of butter stirred through. It is barely a recipe and that is the point. The broth does the work, and you can make it from a decent stock cube without apology. What matters is that the broth is strained clear, so there are no vegetable pieces in it, and that the pasta is cooked a minute past what the packet says. If you can manage one more step, whisk an egg yolk with the cheese and stir it in off the heat. The broth turns silky and the bowl becomes a proper meal.
Ingredients
Contains: Gluten, Milk, Egg, Celery
- 500 mlclear chicken stock, home-made and strained, or a good stock cube
- 50 gpastina, stelline, acini di pepe or any tiny shape
- 15 gunsalted butter
- 20 gParmesan, finely grated
- 1egg yolk — optional
- salt
Method
Bring the stock to the boil in a small pan. If it is home-made, pour it through a fine sieve first so it runs clear, with nothing in it.
Tip in the pastina, turn the heat down to a steady simmer and cook for a minute longer than the packet says, stirring once or twice so it does not catch. The pasta should be fully soft, with no bite left in it. Small shapes take 6 to 8 minutes.
The broth will thicken slightly as the pasta gives up its starch. That is what you want.
Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the butter and most of the Parmesan, and taste for salt. If you are using the egg yolk, whisk it in a cup with the rest of the cheese, then pour it into the hot broth in a thin stream, off the heat, whisking as you go, so it thickens the liquid rather than scrambling.
Pour into a warm bowl and eat with a spoon, slowly, while it is hot.
Watch-points
- Strain the stock clear. No vegetable pieces, no herbs, nothing floating.
- Use small white pasta only. The wholewheat versions look similar on the shelf.
- Cook the pasta fully soft, past the packet time.
Some hospitals allow a pinch of ground pepper on a bowl like this. The leaflet this book follows does not. Leave it out if you have been told to.
Stoma note: A gentle, thickening bowl that suits a new stoma well. Drink a glass of water alongside rather than in it.
Make it more nourishing
- Stir in the egg yolk. It adds about 55 kcal and 3 g of protein and makes the broth silky.
- Use 30 g of Parmesan rather than 20, or add a spoon of mascarpone with the butter.
- Whisk 1 tablespoon of skimmed milk powder into the cold stock before heating. You will not taste it.
Swaps
- Instead of pastina, use broken-up angel hair or vermicelli
- any thin white pasta cooked soft behaves the same
- Instead of chicken stock, use clear beef or vegetable stock
- beef makes it richer. Vegetable makes it vegetarian