Stracciatella history – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Stracciatella history - Italian Cuisine


A Roman soup, a Pugliese cheese and a Lombard ice-cream: the same name for three completely different recipes, which in common have the "rags"

An ice cream, a soup, a cheese: few terms, in Italian cooking, have theambiguity of that name. "stracciatella". A case? No: however distant, the history of these three dishes is characterized by connections and analogies, even if the very popular ice cream he almost forgot the other two today.

To recover the stock

Everything was born centuries ago, in an uncertain past, but in a precise place: Rome. When among the poor dishes of the Christmas tradition the beef broth (of chicken, above all), who immediately felt the need to "to recycle" in the next days. A primary need also in papal Rome, which was also more used to the other parts of Italy to the consumption of meat: the magistracies that guaranteed the supply of the city (the grascia, while the annona took care of the wheat, bread and other primary goods) in fact insured the population artificially low prices, to the disadvantage of the economy of the Latium and Umbrian countryside.

The eggs arrive

The preparation is very simple: it is brought to the boil beef broth and in the meantime they slam eggs, to which will be added parsley is grated Parmesan cheese. It is regulated by salt, is added the pepper and finally the mixture is thrown into the broth, lowering the flame. It mixes everything and in the end you use this "cream" with slices of toasted bread. The idea of ​​combining egg broth is also common to other dishes around Italy, such as in the Pavia soup. The name "stracciatella" derives instead from the fact that the beaten egg, in contact with the broth, takes on the appearance of small "straccetti".

In the Marche and in Emilia-Romagna

Of course, the variants are numerous. The taste is usually made richer by nutmeg, lemon peel and marjoram. Also in the Marche, however, have their own version, which provides for the contribution of the bread crumbs. Practically identical to the recipe in Emilia Romagna, where stracciatella takes the name of "soup of paradise". The recipe was already proposed byArtusi, even if it was not particularly exciting for the great Romagnolo gastronomy: "It is a substantial and delicate soup; but Heaven, even that of Muhammad, has nothing to do with it ". There artusiana recipe It is all in these few lines: "Whip four egg whites hard, add the reds inside, then pour four tablespoons not so full of fine breadcrumbs, as well as grated Parmesan and the smell of nutmeg. Mix the mixture to rest soft and throw it into the boiling broth in teaspoons. Boil it for seven or eight minutes and serve it. This dose will be enough for six people ".

The remains of Andria

The etymology of "tatters"Is also found in the stracciatella intended as cheese. We move, this time, into Puglia, and to be precise ad Andria. The land of burrata, of which stracciatella constitutes at the same time the ancestor is the most important part: it was born in fact atbeginning of the 20th century for recover the residues from the processing of mozzarella, withdrawing from the spinning water to the last frayed and recovering the fat part of the whey. By mixing these residues with fresh cream, stracciatella was obtained. Which, if wrapped in a casing also made of spun dough, takes the name of burrata. Today it is made with cow milk, but in the province of Foggia it also produces excellent buffalo stracciatella. This ingredient, excellent to be consumed alone, also serves to create tasty recipes such as le orecchiette with stracciatella and turnip tops and i peas with stracciatella, but also the stracciatella with leeks. As you can see, the Pugliese stracciatella has nothing to do with the Roman one. But with the "rags" yes, observing the consistency of this dairy product.

Chocolate flakes in Bergamo Alta

And the ice cream? This time we move to Northern Italy, and to be precise a Bergamo. We are in the pastry and ice cream parlor La Marianna, and the 1961. One day, after various and repeated experiments, Enrico Panattoni creates a particular ice cream, a very white cream with irregular pieces of dark chocolate inside. A name was needed, and so the ice-cream makers thought of drawing from one of their restaurant's most requested dishes, namely the stracciatella alla Romana. "The chocolate melt that solidifies and yes shatters in the mantecatore it is reminiscent of the egg that congeals itself in the boiling broth of stracciatella alla romana ", explain the owners in their 'official' history of stracciatella. In short, there are the "rags". Among the ingredients are mentioned "fresh milk, egg yolks, granulated sugar, fresh cream, food jelly and sodium alginate as a stabilizer. The chocolate, once the cover of Luisa della Perugina, today is the flux Lindt with 58% cocoa ". With the same philosophy, a greedy was born Stracciatella cake.

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