Healing from the Soup Pot

My summer break from my awesome gig as piano teacher extraordinaire is under way. We often embark on our home-improvement shenanigans during this time since the lady boss of the house, aka moi, can focus on things. Kind of.

This year is MEGA, in the words of my mom: The basement is getting finished. Holla!

As I explained to The Husband, this - THIS - this is going to change our WHOLE entire life.

But alas, in my effort to be the mac-daddy-planner that takes over my entire being when tackling a task, God, or I guess germs, decided to throw a twist and turn in my itinerary: The kid gets a cold.

In the grand scheme of things, a cold is not a huge ordeal, but as you mommas know, a sick toddler usually wants a whole lotta love and snuggles and kisses and huggies no matter how many boxes and hefty bags of old stuff need to be hauled out of the confines of the cellar into the empty corners of our house. Or onto the curb. Or to the Goodwill pile.

So, to help my baby feel more like his rockin' healthy self, I whipped up some Stracciatella Soup, which is code for Italian egg drop soup. The soup takes no more than 10 minutes. I also cooked some teeny tiny ditalina in a small pot on the side, drained them and added them to the soup at the end. I used Anna brand #63. They are more substantial than straight up baby pastina but smaller than regular ditalini. Any tiny pasta will do. My boy grooves on pasta stars, too. Really, he hasn't met a pasta he doesn't like. That's the Eye-tal-iano in him.

I made Giada's recipe from"Giada's Family Dinners." Make sure you use the fresh herbs in your egg mixture. They make all the difference!

This is a great soup to have on hand in the summer, because really, who wants to make a cauldron of hot stuff in the summer. But sometimes, you gots to do what you gots to do.

Stracciatella Soup
4 to 6 servings
From "Giada's Family Dinners"
By Giada De Laurentiis

6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 cup lightly packed spinach leaves, cut in thin strips
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, cheese, parsley and basil to blend. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir the broth in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin strands of egg, about 1 minute. Stir in the spinach, then season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

Please note: To add pasta to your soup, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add 1/2 cup of your favorite pastina. Cook according to package instructions. Drain and stir into pot of soup.