MONDAY MORNING RECIPE POST - CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

I don't have anything new for you this week. We have been eating leftovers from our Christmas Dinner. I made a batch of this soup that we could eat over a few days while getting ready for the 25th. You can find the recipe at this link. Our son gave us a box of noodles to try, Girelle pasta, which is one of his and our daughter-in-law's favorites at the moment.

Girelle refers to two distinct types of Italian pasta: a short, corkscrew-shaped dry pasta, and the type we used for this latest version of chicken noodle soup, and a stuffed, rolled fresh pasta.

Short-cut Girelle (Vesuvio) is a dried, commercial pasta shape, specifically a short, semi-hollow corkscrew, often referred to as Vesuvio. The shape is said to be inspired by the famous Mt. Vesuvius volcano in the Campania region of Italy where it originates. Its curly spring shape is excellent for catching and scooping up hearty sauces and chunky ingredients, or in a soup such as this one. It can be found in Italian food specialty retailers such as DeLallo (their website can be found here if interested) or, in our case, son bought it from a nearby Wegmans Supermarket. It may be sold in other supermarkets also, but I haven’t explored that yet.

The stuffed fresh Girella (Rolled) is a handmade fresh pasta preparation, where sheets of pasta are rolled tightly with a filling to create a spiral effect. It resembles a long, uncut roll of tortellini or a variation of rotolo. The rolled pasta is typically sliced into individual servings after cooking or baking. It is often served with a complimentary sauce, such as a rich tomato sauce, Cacio e Pepe sauce, or a simple butter emulsion. Common fillings inlcude ricotta and spinach, ricotta and parmesan, or more unique combinations like mushrooms and goat cheese, or ricotta and 'nduja', a spicy spreadable sausage. It can be boiled like a large, long ravioli spiral and then plated with sauce, or baked in the oven with ingredients like béchamel and mozzarella for a golden crust. 

We took a quick trip around the neighborhood last night on our way home. I thought I would share an 8 second video and a couple of photos to close off today’s post.

A photo of Santa about to make his way back to the North Pole. He is the biggest Santa I have seen and was almost as tall as the house. Hopefully there were no high winds expected but he looked safely tethered.

Several others were pointing him in the right direction, fortified by a glass of Eggnog perhaps.

Thanks for looking, have a great week and...