Top 79 Italian Soups

Pasta e ceci is a thick Italian soup featuring pasta and chickpeas as the main ingredients. Any kind of pasta can be used in the soup, from maltagliati to cannolicchi. The dish is usually prepared with a soffrito of onions and celery that is simmered in a chickpea broth, while the pasta is added later. This classic, comforting dish is traditionally served on Friday throughout Italy.Expand

Every Tuscan family has a recipe for this soup that has been refined and passed down through generations. The name means reboiled, referring to the fact that it is commonly consumed on the day after its preparation, when it is reheated with a dash of olive oil. The key ingredients in ribollita are leftover bread, cannellini beans, and seasonal vegetables such as kale, onions, carrots, and cabbage. It is a typical winter dish, and one of its main ingredients, Tuscan kale, is available exclusively in winter. This soup was originally a peasant dish, and it was first prepared in medieval times when servants and peasants were given leftover bread, which they boiled into a soup along with vegetables and herbs from their fields. As they would make large quantities of the soup, it would get reheated over and over again, and the flavor would improve each time that it was reboiled. Cheap, nutritious, and flavorful, this traditional soup remains a staple of Tuscan cuisine.Expand

Pappa al pomodoro is a thick Tuscan soup consisting of fresh tomatoes, bread, olive oil, basil, and garlic. The soup can be served warm or chilled. For the authentic version, only costoluto fiorentino tomatoes and pane toscano bread should be used in the dish. Although it has ancient origins, pappa al pomodoro was first popularized in 1911 by the publication of Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca.Expand

Minestra di pane, translated as bread soup, is a traditional Tuscan dish made with day-old stale bread and a mixture of fresh garden vegetables. The recipe has peasant origins (hence the use of varied offerings from the Tuscan soil) and must always incorporate two key ingredients: beans and black cabbage. The original version of minestra di pane uses unsalted pratese bread with an assortment of vegetables such as celery, potatoes, onions, carrots, courgettes, tomato paste, and olive oil. It is served as the first dish and can also be used the next day as a base for a traditional ribollita.Expand

Passatelli in brodo is a specialty dish of the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy, consisting of a meat broth filled with dumplings made from cheese, bread, and eggs. This hearty soup belongs to the cucina povera (cuisine of the poor), when people used to invent new dishes with what little ingredients they had at the time. It is recommended to pair the soup with a simple red wine such as Sangiovese.Expand

Pasta e fagioli is a traditional dish for which there are recipes throughout all Italian regions, and although there is no official recipe, there are numerous regional variations of the dish. Most often, the dish is made with beans and small varieties of pasta, cooked in a base of olive oil, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and stewed tomatoes, or a broth which can be vegetarian or meat-based. Pasta e fagioli can have a soupy texture, but sometimes it is much thicker, depending on the regional variations. The dish started as a meal of the poor people and as a replacement for the expensive meat. In the past, it was mostly consumed as a winter soup because it is healthy, inexpensive, and filling. Today, it is consumed throughout the country, and in Veneto, pasta e fagioli is often enriched with pork and potatoes, while in Naples, it is very popular to eat it reheated the next day, because it is believed to taste even better.Expand

Vellutata di zucca is a classic Italian pumpkin soup. It's usually made with a combination of chopped and peeled pumpkin, potatoes, vegetable stock, and olive oil. The ingredients are cooked until tender, then blended until the soup becomes velvety smooth. It can be enriched with a bit of cream, and it's usually seasoned only with a pinch of salt and pepper. When served, it is sometimes accompanied by pieces of toasted bread. The soup is especially popular in the fall.Expand

Zuppa Toscana is a traditional soup made with Italian sausage, chicken broth, bacon, cream, and vegetables such as onions, kale, and potatoes. Due to its bold flavors and nutritive value, the soup is especially popular during the cold winter months. It is served warm, but many believe that it tastes even better the next day when all of the flavors get thouroughly combined.Expand

Speckknödelsuppe is a soup from the Austrian province of Tyrol. It's also popular in the Italian South Tyrol region, where it's called canederli con speck in brodo. The soup features dumplings made from stale bread and bacon, and a clear, (usually beef) broth that is cooked separately. The dumplings are first cooked, then added to the soup which can contain additional ingredients such as carrots and leeks. When ready to serve, this dumpling soup is usually garnished with chopped chives or parsley.Expand

Stracciatella is a soup made with hot meat broth and a beaten mixture of eggs, grated cheese, and semolina flour. People in the Lazio, Marche, and Abruzzo regions eat this soup, and in Rome it's called stracciatella alla romana. A pot of chicken or beef stock must reach a rolling boil to begin the process. A separate bowl holds a beaten mixture of whole eggs, grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese, a pinch of salt, ground black pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Some variations include semolina flour, plain breadcrumbs, or lemon zest in the batter. The boiling broth requires a continuous circular motion while the egg mixture slowly pours into the pot. The moving hot liquid instantly solidifies the egg into small shreds. The word stracciatella translates to "little rags." This name describes the appearance of these cooked egg pieces floating in the broth. Stracciatella is served as a first course at Easter lunch and wedding receptions. People also serve the soup to family members recovering from an illness because the plain broth and eggs are easy to digest. It is typical to serve the soup hot with extra grated cheese sprinkled on top. This savory broth shares a name with a gelato flavor invented in 1962. The gelato maker poured a stream of melted chocolate into cold ice cream to create chocolate shreds. This technique replicated the visual effect of torn egg pieces in hot soup.Expand