“Pastina,” which translates from Italian to English as “little pasta,” is the celebrity of a current viral social media foodie craze.
Pastina is now flying off the shelves at stores, and people can’t get enough of it as the hottest comfort food in vogue. (There are even pastina Tick Tock videos and Instagram posts going viral.)
While some people are reportedly just learning about it, others have known about it their entire lives, such as most Italian Americans. Some even recall feeding their babies pastina all the time.
Local restaurant availability
A more common way people enjoy pastina is in Italian Wedding Soup. A restaurant in the area that offers the wedding soup with orzo, meatballs, and spinach, is Bravo Italian Kitchen at Briarwood.
Chef Shelley Caughey Adams, who worked as Executive Chef at the Earl for over 30 years used “tubetti” in their “pasta e fa*gioli,” a thick white bean soup. But it is now just called “bean soup” because they stopped their French and Italian titles, though the soup is currently on the menu, with current Chef Jay Buquet.
If you drive about 20 minutes to Antonio’s Cucina Italiana in Canton, you can order “Chicken Pastina: Mini pasta in a broth made from real soup hens; a soup we grew up on.”
A version of the wedding soup with beef broth is also available at times at Le Dog.
But there are many other recipes one can make at home that also feature pastina. To help, we are sharing another local story and two easy pastina recipes.
Personal story
As a child, my mother diversified by serving different kinds of pastinas, which always kept things interesting. Because “pastina” means “little pasta” the only real requirement is that they are tiny shapes. Sometimes we savored little dots, alphabet pasta, orzo, little stars, or any kind of minute pasta that was much tinier than the more familiar and larger spaghetti, ziti, and the like.
There are also more specific names for pastina in Italian that describe a particular shape. Some refer to it as “acini di pepe” which translates to “pepper seeds.” There is also the name “stelline” meaning “little stars.” And there is ditalini, which translates to “small thimbles.” (The Italians are often poetic with their names.)
My two favorite recipes to prepare pastina for myself or family members are (1.) in a soup with broth and veggies and (2.)very simple, drained acini di pepe, and a slice of butter.
With Irish butter
The simplest way to make pastina is to appreciate the texture and beauty of the little pasta itself. This means just finding a package of pastina, bringing water to a boil, and cooking it for 9 to 11 minutes. Then drain the pastina in a colander and place in a bowl with a pad of Irish butter (such as Kerrygold) on top (Irish butter is very flavorful). Let melt and mix.
This plainer buttered pastina is perfect when for the “BRAT” diet. Although the acronym stands for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast—some pastina with butter fits in also. The brat diet is ideal for smaller children or those experiencing nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
This very simple pastina with butter is also just very cozy on a winter snowy day as well. A little Parmesan Reggiano could be sprinkled on top or omitted for a blander version.
“Italian Penicillin”
Another fairly simple and healthy way to have pastina is in soup. Basically, one would use all the ingredients in a chicken noodle soup recipe, but instead of the noodles, one would substitute some cooked pastina.
My usual way to make a more regular soup is to stew a usual pot of chicken soup with garlic, carrots, onions, spinach, and chicken and then prepare separately the pastina.
If one were only making pastina chicken soup for one, one cup of broth, diced veggies, and a cup of cook pastina could then be mixed together. One could multiply the ingredients by the number of people if cooking for more. Again, Parmesano Reggiano can be sprinkled on top at the end.
For math
And there is a mathematical application for pastina. Did you know that pastina is the perfect size to plot points on the coordinate grid? This is a great way to introduce plotting points to kids for the first time. Simply draw a straight horizontal line on grid paper and then in the middle of it draw a perpendicular vertical line. Number the coordinate grid and then place your dots, or pastina at various coordinates. The coordinate grid has four quadrants but when one begins, it may be easier to focus on the positive x and y coordinates in quadrant one.
Where to buy
There are many brands of pastina. While recent news in January broke that Rozini, a U.S. dried pasta company, has stopped production of its star-shaped Pastina No. 15, people are stocking up on their “Acini de Pepe” variety.
Other brands that make pastina include Barilla, Prince, De Cecco, Ferrara, Colavita, and San Giorgio. Many people are now buying multiple boxes/bags of pastina if they happen to find it anywhere—even online. Plum Market often has pastina soup in the prepared soup area.
Still can’t find pastina? Consider using Middle Eastern couscous as a substitute. While couscous is different in texture, ingredients, and size (and not always perfectly spherical either) it is a close second and interesting in its own right.
