Pastina Soup (Minestrina)

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Try this delicious, flavorful and quick to make Italian Pastina soup. It's made with minimal ingredients is pure comfort food for all ages, anytime of the year.

Prep Time2

Cook Time8

Total Time10

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 292kcal

Author: Svi

Ingredients

For Chicken Broth

2 chicken thighs , or whole chicken, approx 1 pound (see notes)
1 large carrot
2 celery ribs
1 small onion
1 garlic cloves
3-5 cherry tomatoes or 1 sun-dried tomato
1 zucchini or 1 fennel
8 cups water , approximately

For Soup

6 oz star pastina or other tiny pasta shape

For Serving

Creamy cheese triangles (wedges)
Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Prepare Chicken Broth

Start by washing, scrubbing the vegetables. Peel onion and carrot, you can also slice them in half or in quarters. If using zucchini or fennel cut off the ends and cut the vegetable in a couple of chunks.
Pluck chicken to clean any remaining feathers and run it thoroughly under cold running water.
Put chicken and vegetable in a pot, then add the water.
Just before broth comes to a boil skim off any foam/scum from the surface if you see any.
Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and simmer for 60-90 minutes, then strain. Don’t discard meat and vegetable! Instead use them for your next meal (see notes). The more you cook the broth the most intense will be the flavor.

Prepare Pastina Soup

Take the amount of broth needed to cook pastina, about 1 cup per person, and put in a pot.
Bring to a boil then add pastina. Cook for 3-5 minutes as directed on the package.
Serve immediately with a cheese wedge or freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Notes

The broth cooked as described in the recipe will be flavorful and rich due to the natural chicken fat “melted in the broth’. If you want to make lighter broth you can skim all or some of the fat. To do this, once the broth has cooled to room temperature, then place in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Skim all or some fat the will set on the surface.

The best meat to make chicken broth is free range chicken/hen but don’t use it whole. You can either use chicken thighs or whole chicken with chicken breast (chicken fillet) removed. This way you can also consume delicious meat from the broth.

Nutrition