Eat Well, Live Happy: Pastina Soup (Italian Penicillin)

I've seen this Pastina Soup recipe online a few times and finally made it today. I've had two different back-to-back sicknesses since last week and had a little more energy today so I made this for my lunch. It was pretty amazing!

I can't handle onions and garlic anymore so I only used them for flavor. I kept the onion whole and still used 4 cloves of smashed garlic, but I threw all of them away before I blended the carrots and celery. I also used more carrots and celery than the recipe called for (5 or 6 small/medium carrots and 4 celery stalks). I used two 32-ounce cartons of chicken broth plus half a carton of water.

I made about 3/4 bag of Stelline pasta which seemed like the perfect amount for this recipe. I cooked the pasta separately and spooned the broth over it. I also stored the leftovers separately so the pasta wouldn't absorb all of the broth.

I haven't been eating grated cheese lately so I put some ground pepper and more salt in my soup and it was so good. This is a delicious, simple recipe to make, especially if someone in your household isn't feeling well.

Update: I got sick again so I made this again a week later and used my new Vitamix Propel 750 (that I bought on a really good sale), which blended the veggies much better than my previous blender. My KitchenAid blender left parts of celery that were not fully blended that I kept picking out of my soup but the Vitamix blended every little thing up so well. To my surprise, both of my sons ate the soup for dinner and kept commenting how good it was! They rarely try soup that I make and almost never like it so that speaks to how good this broth is. I used my 5.5-qt dutch oven, more veggies and three 32-ounce cartons of chicken broth plus a little bit of water. Next time I might use my larger dutch oven and four cartons of broth now that I know how much everyone loves this soup! I froze a few containers of it so the next time someone isn't feeling well I can make it quickly for them.

Pastina Soup (Italian Penicillin)

Recipe from Pinch of Yum Blog

This soup has become my go-to recipe when my family is sick. The broth is amazing – simple, light, flavorful, and nourishing! It’s absolute comfort food.

For the Broth:

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

2 stalks of celery, cut into large chunks

half of 1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into large chunks

4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

10 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I use 10 cups water plus 2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon chicken base)

1 teaspoon salt

For Serving:

1½ cups pastina (I use Stelline from the Good and Gather brand at Target)

freshly grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Sauté Veggies: Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the chunky carrots, celery, onion, and garlic to the pot. Sauté for 5 minutes.

Simmer: Add broth and salt. Simmer for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are very tender.

Remove Veggies: Use a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetable chunks to a bowl. Set aside to cool for a few minutes (you don’t want to add scorching hot veggies to your plastic blender).

Blend: When the veggies have cooled a bit, blend them with 1-2 cups broth until very smooth. Add the blended mixture back to the pot; stir to incorporate.

Pastina: Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Serve: Put a scoop of pastina in a shallow bowl. Ladle the steaming hot broth over the top, and top each bowl with freshly grated Parmesan.

Makes 6-8 servings.