Parmesan Pastina

A friend posted this on Facebook and we tried it and really liked it. The super tiny pasta is so fun! The lemon in the original recipe feels like kind of a foodie thing, where it changes up boring pasta and turns it into something definitely more interesting, but none of us really enjoyed the added flavor and opted to leave it out in future batches. I probably liked the lemon the best of everyone, but it was still not entirely my thing. So, feel free to add it or leave it out. Your choice. Enjoy!

Parmesan Pastina

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chicken broth
• (1) 12-oz pkg dry pastina or similar (alphabet pasta, acini de pepe, etc.)
• 1 egg, whisked
• 4 TBS cold butter
• 1 cup warm milk, plus 2 TBS
• 1-½ packed cups freshly grated parmesan cheese (grated from a wedge is tastiest)
• ¼-½ tsp garlic powder
• Zest from one small lemon, optional (we opted out)
• Salt & fresh pepper to taste

Directions:

• Bring chicken broth to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add in pasta and turn heat to a gentle boil. Stir often to prevent pasta from sticking. Boil 5-6 min until pasta is al dente and liquid is mostly absorbed. While pasta is cooking, warm milk in a separate container in microwave. Do not let the boil or get too hot. Once pasta is done, remove pan from heat.
• Add in cold butter and stir. Once butter is melted remove a cup of pasta and mix into egg to temper. Pour pasta/egg mixture back into pan and stir well to incorporate. Stir in milk and combine well.
• Add in garlic powder, lemon zest (opt), parmesan cheese. Taste. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. You might want to add a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice to round out the flavors (opt).
• Serve immediately and garnish with fresh herbs and extra parmesan cheese.