la Pastina

  My first memories of Italian food were just like many other Italian children, the first Italian food you’ll eat is going to be Pastina. Pastina are tiny little star-shaped pasta (Stelline) that Italian mothers feed their little bambini when they are first being weaned off mothers milk. The tiny little pasta are perfect for the little tikes to eat. Usually coated with a little bit of butter, Italian babies just love the stuff and this is their first introduction that will be filled with a lifetime of pasta as the centerpiece of their diet. I loved pastina and all through my childhood I’d often ask my mother to make me some for me. Later on, besides the butter, you sprinkle on a little bit of grated Parmigiano, sometimes with a little bit of warm Milk and you’re in heaven, Pastina is simple and oh so tasty. I still eat it to this day. You’ll also find Pastina in soup, especially with homemade chicken broth. Now that’s comfort food par excellence! 

   Now I really didn’t eat Pastina all that much for a number of years I guess, but as most adults do as they get a bit older, they will revert back to those things they loved in childhood, thus my taking up eating some Pastina con Burro e Parmigiano in the past couple of years. By the way, that’s the Italian name (in Italy) I just gave you. Pastina actually means “Little Pasta,” and the star-shaped one that we usually would have are called Stelline. So, we Italian-Americans just say Pastina, and it usually means Pastina with butter and grated Parmesan Cheese. If you’re not Italian-American and have never had this simple little dish, do try it some time, it’s quick and easy to make, and it’s as tasty as can be, you’re sure to love it, it’s Pastina.

   Yes Pastina is an Italian baby’s first introduction into to their native cuisine, Italian. Over the years you’ll be eating all sorts of pasta dishes like, Spaghetti Pomodoro, Lasagna, Manicotti and the rest. You’ll eat Meatballs, Sausages, Braciole, Cannoli, and all the usual suspects of Italian and Italian-American Cuisine. You start with Pastina and it’s on to a whole lifelong discovery and experience of your ethnic cuisine Italian. You’ll eat your family’s favorite foods that have their Genesis in mother Italy, the local foods of your grandparents, then mother and father. You go to friend’s homes and have their mom’s Gravy, Lasagna, Braciole and perhaps dishes their family’s make that you may have never had before, so you’ll make new discoveries along the way. You get older and go out to eat in restaurants and make a few more discoveries as well. And when you go to Italy, a whole new world is out there before you. You go to Rome, Venice, The Amalfi Coast, Sicily, wherever you go in Italy there’s new discoveries around every corner, in markets, at trattoria’s, caffes, pastry shops, and all over. You start with Pastina, and it’s a lifelong journey from there. Enjoy!

Excerpted from MANGIA ITALIANO by Daniel Bellino Zwicke

RIP RONZONI PASTINA

by Celia Mattison – for BON APPETITE MAGAZINE – January 7, 2023

The year is barely underway, but 2023 already has its first major casualty: Ronzoni announced last week that it would be ceasing production this January of pastina, the star-shaped pasta beloved in so many Italian American households. 

Ronzoni gave little information as to why it would be discontinuing pastina apart from a tweet the brand shared, claiming it was a difficult but unavoidable decision resulting from a problem with its supplier. “We searched extensively for an alternative solution but were unable to identify a viable solution,” the tweet read. The backlash to the news was immediate. Tearful farewells  appeared on TikTok; Twitter users decried the decision, with one user sharing a gif of White Lotus’s Jennifer Coolidge crying and shooting a gun with the caption, “Me after finding the person at Ronzoni responsible for discontinuing pastina​.” At this time, six separate petitions have formed on change.org to try to save the pasta. Meanwhile, offline pastina lovers have already started hoarding boxes. 

I get the devastation: I grew up eating the comfort food staple, which was often served with a simple but heaping combination of salt, butter, milk, or Parmesan. My mother made it for me when I was sick and it was the first food I learned how to make on the stovetop. At some point in fifth grade, I made it every day as an after-school snack. After two weeks of finding tiny stars in the kitchen drain, my mother dryly informed me that it was time to “cool it with the pastina.”  

Pastina literally means “little pasta” and can refer to any number of miniature pastas, but Ronzoni, founded in 1915 by an Italian immigrant, helped to mainstream the star shape found in pasta bowls across the US. It boils in a few minutes because of its small shape and makes a whimsical addition to soups, whether in a chicken-and-stars or a celebratory Italian wedding. It’s often cut from the leftovers of pasta. Scraps of dough rendered celestial.

The adoration for pastina starts at an early age. YouTube hosts thousands of videos of users making pastina “just like nonna did.” The Sopranos references it multiple times; Carmela lovingly calls the dish “pasteen” when offering to make it for sick family members. “Pastina is the one thing I can count on,” one glum petitioner wrote. Another expanded on the dish’s importance to Italian Americans: “Pastina is the best! I have had it since I was a child and now make it for my family. Don’t do this! You are killing my and many Italian family traditions! Basta!” 

Today, whenever I make pastina, I think about why I became so attached to the stuff. I was the only Black girl in fifth grade, getting off the bus with frizzy hair I didn’t know how to care for and a craving for the most comforting food I knew. Even though I have little contact with the white Italian-American side of my extended family, I still crave pastina when I am sick or heartbroken. Like my mother, I always keep a box in my pantry.

One small relief: Though it appears the humble pastina is the latest victim in an increasingly tenuous supply chain, supermarket chain Barilla does seem like it will continue to make the iconic shape. So rest easy, my fellow star-eaters—pastina will live on, even if it might be harder to find than before. In the meantime, get down to your nearest pasta aisle, like I’ll be doing, and stock up.