When you're feeling under the weather, there's one food that will always make you feel better—guaranteed! No, we're not talking about chicken noodle soup. We're talking about pastina, the comfort dish known as "Italian penicillin".
If we're being technical, "pastina" is the name of both the dish, and the pasta itself. In fact, pastina isn't just one shape of pasta, it's a category of teeny-tiny pasta shapes often used in soup. Pastina shapes range from tiny tubes to rice-shaped grains, and our favorite: stelline, which is star-shaped!
Comfort In A Bowl
Beyond the pasta, you need very little to make pastina. The only required ingredient is a broth of your choosing. Vegetable broth is easy on the stomach, while low-sodium chicken broth mimics the classic taste of chicken noodle soup.
Once you've brought your brodo (both) to a boil, add your pastina and let it cook for around 8 minutes. Your ultimate sick day soup will be ready in the blink of an eye. Rather than draining your pastina, you want to remove it from the heat and continue stirring; this is where the magic happens.
A drizzle of olive oil and a few tablespoons of freshly-grated Parmesan will transform you simple broth into a creamy and nourishing soup. Pastina is easy to digest without the added sodium of canned chicken noodle soup. Pastina will keep you full without weighing you down.
For many Italian babies, pastina is one of the first semi-solid foods they eat. Pastina is so comforting you'll want to make it all year round, even when you aren't sick. Because pastina is so easy to make, you can spend less time on your feet and more time letting your body repair.
Additionally, the fun shapes of these tiny noodles make pastina fun to eat. If you have a child stuck in their buttered noodles phase, pastina can be an easy way to break up the monotony. By making your own broth, you can sneak in some veggies that will taste so good the kids won't even notice.
The Ultimate Sick Day Meal
Because pastina is so small, it takes much less time to cook than larger pasta shapes. We said 8 minutes earlier to avoid getting any crunchy bites, but many pastina varieties take less time than that. Be wary of overcooking your pastina lest it turns gelatinous.
Pastina can be stored for up to three days in the fridge, provided it's in an airtight container. You can reheat pastina either in the microwave or on the stove. Either way, make sure you add a splash of liquid to keep the texture from turning clumpy instead of creamy.
Additionally, freshly-grated Parmesan will enhance the texture of the pastina as opposed to shaker cheese. However, we understand that the last thing you want to do when you're sick is take a trip to the grocery store. Whatever cheese you have on hand will taste just as good in your pastina.
You don't have to take our word for it—you can take Stanley Tucci's! In his memoir "What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thought)", Tucci namedrops pastina as a "cure-all" for his son. That's as good an endorsement as any!
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