Pastina is an old family classic that will become a favorite in your household too! It’s an Italian-American classic comfort food that makes a perfect side dish, lunch for the kiddos, or even a lighter full meal!
Pastina is one of my favorite comfort foods. It’s a little different than the traditional comfort foods you normally think of – not quite as decadent {keeping with tradioinal Italian style 🙂 }as homemade macaroni and cheese but still creamy and amazing.
I’ve been making it non-stop this winter since it seems like we are always sick. UGH! We can’t seem to catch a break. In a moment of desperation, I took a shot of apple cider vinegar yesterday. Don’t do it – it didn’t help and just made me want to puke. HA!
Make pastina instead!!
As with most Italian recipes, the ingredients are simple – pasta, some cheese, lemon, and an egg. The pasta is sometimes labeled as Pastina or it can be labeled as Acini de Pepe {which actually means grains of pepper or something}, I’ve seen it both ways! It’s just tiny round balls of pasta, you’ve probably seen it in recipes like Frog Eye Salad.
You don’t want to drain this pasta, you want to boil it in just enough chicken stock or water that it cooks through and has just a little extra liquid in the pot when you’re adding all the other ingredients.
And adding the extra ingredients couldn’t be easier, you literally just throw them all into the pot and stir! There are some slices of cheese – really any kind will do, a little salt, and pepper, an egg…
…some parmesan, which is fine to leave out if you don’t have any. Are you seeing how easy this recipe is?
Of course, some fresh parsley…
And I always like to finish mine off with a squeeze of lemon juice. I think it brightens up the whole dish and makes it come together in a delicious way. Then you just give it a stir until it’s all mixed up!
My mom, aunt or grandmother would make this for me and my cousins whenever we were sick. Sometimes it would be how I made it, most often they made it with american cheese, and sometimes it would be more brothy like a soup.
Writing down old family recipes like this always feels like a little bit of a sin – they are supposed to be open-ended and left up to your interpretation! So make this and play around with it – customize it to your taste. 🙂
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Pastina - An Old Family Classic
Ingredients
- 12 oz Pastina pasta 1 box, see note
- 3 cups chicken broth + 1 cup extra, see note
- 2 slices mozarella cheese any mild cheese will work, see note
- 1 1/2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- 1 egg room temperature is best, see note
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon parsley fresh chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice from 1/2 of a lemon
Instructions
- Measure 3 cups of broth or water into a saucepan. Add the pastina and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
- You will not be draining the pasta, so check the liquid level frequently and add more as needed.
- When the pasta is mostly cooked, there should be a small amount of liquid left in the pan.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, besides the lemon, and stir until the cheese is melted and everything is combined.
- There will be streaks of cooked egg white in the pastina, that is normal.
- Squeeze in the juice from half of a lemon, stir, and taste. Adjust seasonings and lemon to your taste. I like a lot of lemon juice.
Al says
My mom made me something similar to this when I was sick as a child. I really liked it except for the strings of egg white.
Is there a reason why you wouldn’t beat the egg before adding it?
Alli says
Just tradition for me, if you want the egg to be more evenly blended, beat it and add a small amount of the hot noddles to the egg to temper it and then pour that mixture into the whole pasta! Should turn out great.
Joe D says
Nice recipe. I’d never heard of acini de pepe and pastina being used interchangeably before. Maybe it’s just the pasta brands I know best, but Ronzoni & Barilla always clearly distinguished between the two, with what you’ve used in this recipe labeled “acini de pepe” and much smaller pasta called “pastina”. What I’ve always know as pastina is the almost cous-cous-like grains in the picture for this recipe:
https://leitesculinaria.com/78234/recipes-pastina-with-butter-and-milk.html
Alli says
I’ve never seen both sold by the same brand. For the purposes of this recipe, both work just fine and turn out basically identical. I’ve used both many, many times. The picture you referenced is star-shaped pastina, which is why it has a grainy appearance at first glance. You’re really just seeing the many tiny points of the stars.
Daria says
We make it with butter, egg and milk. No cheese
Alli says
Great variation!
Alli says
Family favorite!
Ana says
On a whim I decided to try this on my ultra picky 7yr old eater. This was REALLY good. I didn’t add enough liquid so it kind of became a ‘cake’ when slightly cooled but next time I will add more stock to make it a little more creamy. I did half the recipe but this WILL be made again. Just stumbled on your site today and have already pinned a few recipes to try….now I just have to find time to make them all!
Alli says
I’m so glad you liked it, Ana!! Thank you so much for your kind words – I hope you love all the recipes!