Chicken Pastina Soup Recipe
This Chicken Pastina Soup recipe, aka "Italian Penicillin", or also known as sopita, is a comforting, vegetable-packed soup that is perfect for the chilly winter season!
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 199kcal
Ingredients
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 white onion
- 2-3 large carrots
- 3 stalk celery
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- 1 cup Acini di Pepe or small pasta like orzo or little stars
- parsley or cilantro for garnish
- grated parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large pot.
- Add roughly chopped onion, carrots and celery, and full garlic cloves. It doesn't matter how you chop it since we will be blending later! Allow to simmer for about 20-30 minutes until fork tender.
- Scoop out the vegetables and garlic and place into a blender. Add a little bit of the broth into the blender as well so it blends more easily.
- Carefully blend the vegetables until smooth. If you have an immersion blender and want to use that, you can. It might not be as smooth of a mixture, but it will do the trick!
- Add the pureed vegetables back into the pot with the chicken broth.
- Add the acini di pepe or other small pasta into the pot, being sure to stir frequently as they have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Cook until plump and al dente, about 10-12 minutes.
- Serve with freshly grated parmesan and parsley or cilantro if desired.
Notes
To make your Italian chicken pastina soup ahead of time, boil the pasta in a separate pot of water. Drain and serve the pasta in a bowl then ladle the broth on top. Store them separately. If you store the pasta in the broth, the pasta will soak up a lot of the broth, making it super thick. Still delicious, but not as soupy!