Feed a cold?

What's the old saying? Starve a fever, feed a cold? Or is it the other way around? 

Well for my birthday, Tim gave me the gift that keeps on giving and I did not feel like being fed or feeding anyone else for that matter! Now to put it in perspective, it was just a bad cold but I felt rotten just the same and was not particularly interested in food. Tim, on the other hand, had a man cold so I was on standby to call an ambulance for about a week while he got over the worst of it. One complaint from me one night about feeling too sick to contemplate making dinner had him truly puzzled, and caused him to inquire, earnestly I might add, whether I in fact had the man cold. He survived this incident, but only because I was too weak from not eating, to hurl any of the heavy, blunt objects at him that were lying around at arm's length.

Possibly out of guilt for bringing his cold monster home to me (even though he claims I insisted on kissing him although he was feeling lurgied - well we were at a wedding! (that wasn't ours)) he decided he'd better make dinner one night. He had a craving for my old family recipe for chicken soup. Perfect for any type cold, man or otherwise.

I recall my grandmother making this as a child and taking flasks of it to any of her elderly Italian friends who were unfortunate enough to be in hospital. These people would have, without doubt, starved to death if they had not had relatives and friends who understood food, and therefore did not expect them to even attempt to survive on the hospital's version.

I know the feeling - once after several days in hospital and with the family away, I very nearly starved to death myself. My mother came home from being away, rushed in to visit me and asked me if I wanted anything. Only one thing did I want. Pastina! (my name for this delicious soup)

And so I share an old family favourite with you.

Italian Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

600gm chicken mince

1/3 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley

1 fresh, free range egg

1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper 

1 tbsp salt

2 litres chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup risoni or other tiny pasta 

Warm your stock in a medium pot and keep it gently simmering. No need to have it roughly bubbling away. I put a few stalks of parsley in with the stock and remove before serving.

Place the chicken, parsley, egg, parmesan, salt and pepper into a bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. If you're not a huge pepper fan, use only half a tablespoon or even a teaspoon. Don't go entirely without it though because it really adds to the flavour.

With the bowl near to the simmering stock, roll small balls of chicken and drop them gently into the stock. To prevent sticking, have a bowl of tepid water at hand and dip your fingers in this every so often. The balls shouldn't be bigger than a large walnut and can be really tiny if you like. I had one great-aunt who made them the size of large peas. They should float to the top after a couple of minutes.

Once you've made all the meatballs, let them cook for about 15 minutes or so. Maintain a gentle simmer and don't boil them to death. The broth will become lovely and tasty now.

About 10 minutes before you want to serve, pour in the risoni and stir gently. You can get the super tiny pasta that's a fraction of the size of risoni in some delis. If you can find it, try it instead. Before the whole gluten issue kicked in for me, it was my preference and what the oldies always used.  Now I just remove some of the broth and meatballs before I put the pasta in.

The risoni should be served al dente, like with all pasta, so have a taste and see how it's going just before you want to serve. Serve with bread and extra parmesan if you like it. 

The photo shows a little less broth than would usually be in the bowl. This is purely for aesthetic purposes - risoni gets lost in a full bowl of broth.

This should feed about four people who don't want seconds, or two extremely hungry people, one of whom wants some for lunch the next day.