Stracciare means “to rip to shreds” in Italian, and, indeed, that is how this soup looks after you’ve stirred some beaten eggs with some grated cheese into a good chicken broth. Once you have a good chicken broth, the rest is easy. Stracciatella is usually served with shredded spinach and beaten egg, but I recall having it with just egg and cheese when spinach was not in season. In the Italy that I grew up in, seasons made a difference, not only in how we dressed, but in what we ate. This is a great restorative soup, served in most Italian families.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6

　　8 cups defatted homemade chicken stock (see page 40)

　　1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

　　4 packed cups shredded fresh spinach leaves

　　4 large eggs

　　1/3 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

　　Freshly ground black pepper

　　

Step 1

Bring the stock to a simmer in a medium pot with 1 teaspoon salt. Once stock is simmering, add the spinach and cook until tender, about 3 minutes.

　　

Step 2

Whisk together the eggs, grated cheese, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and freshly ground black pepper to taste in a medium bowl.

　　

Step 3

When the spinach is tender, add about a third of the egg mixture to the soup, continuously whisking, to make shreds of eggs. Add remaining eggs in two more batches, letting the soup return to a boil between additions. Once all of the eggs have been added, bring the soup to a final boil, and use the whisk to break up any large clusters of eggs. Serve the soup with the additional grated cheese.

　　Reprinted with permission from Lidia's Italy in America by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Copyright © 2011 by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.