Christmas dinner in my Italian family household was always handmade raviolis when I was growing up. Since we still travel back to our hometown for Christmas every year, it still is. My kids will tell you that they didn’t realize most people have turkey or ham on Christmas, not raviolis, until they were in their college years.

While the raviolis are the main event, my favorite part is the soup course. It is always my grandmother’s Rag Soup. That’s the only name I ever knew it by. It wasn’t until I was researching Italian soups for this blog post that I realized it has another name. Stracciatella means ”little rags” in Italian. It is the Italian form of egg drop soup. This soup is an elegant but wonderfully quick & simple one to make. The “rag” part is formed by dropping small clumps of eggs whisked with Italian bread crumbs & Parmesan cheese into hot chicken broth. Simply delicious!

Nona’s Rag Soup    Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• grated lemon rind
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• salt & pepper to taste
• chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Portioned & ready to be combined.

Mix the eggs, cheese, lemon zest, 1 cup of the bread crumbs, a bit of salt and pepper, and the nutmeg, until it is a thick mixture. Continue to add bread crumbs if needed to get to the consistency of a paste.

Add enough breadcrumbs to make a thick paste.

Boil the broth and drop in small amounts of the egg mixture. Cook for an additional 2 minutes after all the egg drops have been added.

Drop small globs of the egg mixture into the boiling broth.

Serve immediately with a garnish of parsley.  The soup can also be frozen.

Merry Christmas!  ~Linda

Nona’s Rag Soup    Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• grated lemon rind
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• salt & pepper to taste
• chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Mix the eggs, cheese, lemon zest, 1 cup of the bread crumbs, a bit of salt and pepper, and the nutmeg, until it is a thick mixture. Continue to add bread crumbs if needed to get to the consistency of a paste.

Boil the broth and drop in small amounts of the egg mixture. Cook for an additional 2 minutes after all the egg drops have been added.

Serve immediately with a garnish of parsley.  The soup can also be frozen.