Stracciatella Soup: 20-Minute Recipe for Italian Egg Drop Soup

Stracciatella soup, or Italian egg drop soup, consists of broth, eggs, and flavorings. Stracciatella is Italian for “little shred.” Another name for the soup is stracciatella alla romana because in Italy the dish is most popular in the Lazio region, specifically around Rome.

Stracciatella soup combines a beaten egg mixture with chicken broth, creating striations of egg. Traditional Italian cooks mix the eggs with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon zest, and semolina flour. This creates a thick mixture that they will then drizzle into the soup. Like Chinese egg drop soup, the Italian version can be a warm comfort food during cool weather months. The soup is also a traditional Italian dish to serve on Easter.

“Stracciatella” is also the name of a popular flavor of gelato, an Italian frozen dessert, featuring a vanilla base and striations of chocolate.

In Italian cooking, substituting or adding ingredients based on seasonality or availability is very common. The cuisine lacks the rigidity of French cuisine, for example, as Italian dishes focus more on incorporating fresh and balanced ingredients. There are therefore countless variations of stracciatella soup. Below are just four different ways to put a different spin on the Italian soup.

1. 1. Add meatballs. To make a soup that’s a crossover between stracciatella soup and Italian wedding soup, add mini meatballs. Sear them in olive oil in a nonstick skillet first, then add them to the egg drop soup to let them finish cooking. The meatballs add a meaty and savory flavor while also providing texture.
2. 2. Cook pasta in the soup. Stracciatella soup typically lacks pasta, but you can add small pastas—like pastina or ditalini—to give the soup more heft. Additionally, the pasta starch will make the soup a little thicker.
3. 3. Mix in breadcrumbs. Semolina flour, which is in many different pastas, is a traditional ingredient of stracciatella soup. For a different bread-like flavor, use a breadcrumb mixture. Combine the breadcrumbs with the beaten eggs, grated cheese, and seasonings, then add the mixture to the soup.
4. 4. Use Pecorino Romano cheese. It’s traditional to use Parmesan cheese in stracciatella soup, but you can try using Pecorino Romano instead for a slightly different flavor. Add the grated cheese to the egg mixture, along with the other ingredients. Pecorino has a similar flavor and texture to grated Parmesan, but Pecorino uses sheep’s milk as opposed to cow’s milk.