The Cheesy, Dainty Egg Soup You'll Wish You Made Sooner
Although vegans will most likely disagree, most of us wouldn't know how to live without eggs. They are so popular that in 2020 the U.S., each person ate 286.5 eggs, and it's expected that the figure will "reach 288.1 eggs per capita" in 2022 (per Statista). So a good question would be: what can't you do with eggs? They are most commonly boiled, baked, fried, scrambled, and poached (via Country Roads Magazine).
However, there are even more ways to eat eggs than you might have thought. Eggs can also be coddled, which means that they're gently steamed in individual cups, most often made from ceramic (per Martha Stewart). And shirred eggs, which Julia Child loved, are made by baking eggs with a bit of cream in small cups at low temperatures. The technique is quite similar to the French oeufs en cocotte, or eggs baked in "ramekins or custard cups" (via New England). And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Every egg aficionado knows that many tasty dishes wouldn't exist without eggs, such as quiches, frittatas, classic omelets, a variety of cakes, and soufflés. And don't even get us started on some indispensable creamy sauces, such as hollandaise or mayonnaise. So yes, eggs are life, both literally and metaphorically. But do you know that there are also a few traditional soups made with eggs? Specifically, there's one cheesy egg soup you'll wish you had made sooner.
Stracciatella alla romana is the Roman version of egg drop soup
Are you familiar with egg drop soup? Also known as danhuatang, this soup originates from China, and it's made by adding beaten eggs to hot chicken broth, with added ingredients such as scallions, tofu, and pepper – whether black, white, or both (per Wind Chimes Chinese). But China is not the only country that has traditional egg soup. For example, in Greece, you can enjoy avgolemono, a hearty soup consisting of chicken broth, beaten eggs, lemon juice, chicken, rice, and carrots (via Olive Tomato).
And in Italy, stracciatella is more than just an ice cream flavor. You probably know that Italy has a very popular stracciatella gelato flavor, and you might not know that in the region of Puglia, stracciatella is the creamy inside of burrata cheese. But there's also the eponymous stracciatella soup originating from Rome, and it's also known as stracciatella alla romana.
This Roman version of egg drop soup is made by whisking a mixture of beaten eggs, Parmigiano Reggiano, and parsley into a boiling meat broth. This tasty and warming soup is named after the eggs, which look like little strands or rags (straccetti) once they're incorporated into the broth. Once done, the soup is typically served with crostini on the side (per La Cucina Italiana). New York Times reports that stracciatella is also often enriched with nutmeg and seasoned with salt and pepper. Yum. We're already warming our chicken stock.