Roman Egg Drop Soup, Gluten Free

Photograph of chickens from PD Photo.org

Photograph by M. Chambers via Wikipedia under GNU free documentation license.

Yet another luxurious farmers’ market haul with a few veggies from a friend’s garden.

The finished product, La Stracciatella (Roman Egg Drop Soup), wheat-and-gluten free and chock full of vegetables. 

From time immemorial, soups and broths have been the worldwide medium for utilizing what we call the kitchen byproducts or as the French call them, the ‘dessertes de la table’ (leftovers), or ‘les parties interiures de la bete’, such as head, tail, lights, liver, knuckles and feet.” The Soup Book by Louis P. De Gouy

Picture it:  Brooklyn, New York, early 50s and my first intro to Roman Egg Drop Soup (La Stracciatella, i.e., torn or ragged, which is the way the eggs look) came courtesy of my Aunt Mildred, a world-class cook and a world-class lady.  Though she made all the usual Brooklyn Italian dishes from scratch and the best-ever meat sauce, for this particular recipe she actually used Lipton soup to make an ersatz, but kid-friendly,version. The recipe used to be on the soup package.  I don’t know if it still is.  I no longer eat prefabricated foods.

That first recipe was not wheat-and-gluten free and was comprised of a chicken noodle soup packet, a can of spinach (drained, save the liquid), the spinach liquid and enough water to make four cups, and one well-beaten egg. You would prepare the soup according to package directions, then add the spinach to heat it through. The the soup was brought to a boil. Finally you would slowly add the egg with a fork, stirring continually so that the egg would form little “rags” in the soup. She served it up to me and my cousins along with – can you believe it? – Wonder Bread, “helps build strong bodies twelve ways.”  What did we know in those days?  Anyway, we kids thought this was great.  We’d proceed to put noodles, eggs, and spinach on one side of the bread and fold it over to make soggy, delicious”spinach sandwiches.” Then we’d drink the broth.  It was one our favorite lunchtime treats, ranking right up there with meatball lollipops (meatballs on a fork), which we got to have when a big pot of sauce was in process.

When I got older and started reading cookbooks, I found out that more traditionally, Roman Egg Drop Soup was made with a rich homemade chicken broth, an egg, semolina flour, nutmeg, minced parsley, Parmesan cheese, and pepper. A cup or so of the broth is set aside while the rest is heated.  The remaining ingredients are whipped together and then whipped into the boiling broth.

Thanksgiving 1986 (yes, I remember things like this!), I add shredded and minced vegetables and found I liked it that way. This soup is a great way to use up odds and ends of vegetables and chicken or turkey bones. When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease the semolina had to go.  What follows below is wheat-and-gluten free and a satisfying but light and healthy corruption.  For this particular batch, I made broth from a chicken carcass I had that still had some meat on it.

Note: If the broth is purchased not homemade, be sure that it’s gluten free.

Roman Egg  Drop Soup

Serves six

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large white onion, chopped

6 cloves of garlic, minced

6 cups of rich broth, vegetable or chicken

2 celery stalks including leaves, minced

2 small hot or sweet peppers, minced

2 green squash, shredded

6 cups of baby spinach

1 cup of fresh parsley, minced

2 omega-3 eggs

1 tablespoon of water

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, best quality you can afford

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Pour the oil into the stock pot and then sauté the onion.  When it begins to get golden add the garlic.  Sauté both to golden brown.  Add broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and add the celery, simmering for two or three minutes. Add the rest of vegetables, except the spinach and parsley.  They can be added after about five minutes. Continue to simmer until the vegetables are almost tender, about ten minutes. Meanwhile, whip the two eggs with the tablespoon of water, the nutmeg, and the Parmesan cheese. When the vegetables are almost tender, bring the soup to a boil and slowly poor in the egg mixture will stirring the soup with a fork.  This will break up the egg mixture so that it cooks in pieces (i.e., little rags).  

This is a very free-form, very forgiving soup.  You can be quite creative with it.  You can use any combination of vegetables that appeals to you or added cooked diced, chicken or turkey. You can top each serving with a basil chiffonade or some pesto or pistou.

~ by brooklynmemoriesmostgreen on July 22, 2009.