Super Simple Sour Trahana Soup

Trahana is a Greek/Cypriot peasant pasta. There are two varieties, sweet and sour. Today I’m talking sour (but don’t let that word scare you).Traditionally, dough is rolled out and dried partially in the hot Mediterranean sun, then broken by hand into small nugget-like pieces and taken back to sun-dry the rest of the way. It stores well for a very long time, not unlike rice or pasta, and is used in pretty much the same way.

I hated trahana when I was a kid. I probably liked it until this one time my mother or one of my aunts or somebody made it where it turned into this thick, sticky mass of tomato and trahana goo. I can still remember what it smelled and tasted like. I decided that I could easily live my life without ever eating, or even thinking about, that shit ever again.

Fast-forward 40-some years. On a whim, I bought a bag of sour trahana that I found in a Greek specialty store (And no, I had truly not given trahana a thought for more than 40 years until that moment). For whatever reason, I thought maybe I should give it another chance. I went online to look at recipes for it. So many posts saying it was wonderful... I’m thinking, “Really? Am I that wrong about the stuff?” Long story short and after spending hours looking at soup recipe after soup recipe, I made my own version with my impulse purchase and – no lie – I actually got tears in my eyes.  I make a lot of wonderful soups, and this one was truly amazing. It was tangy but with a sweetness that surprised me, and a really comforting texture. So few ingredients with so much flavor!

The day will come when I try making my own trahana from scratch (There are recipes for this online if you're motivated), but, until then, I am recommending the ready-made kind if you can find it at a Greek specialty store like I did or via online order.

And FYI, this is the first time I ever made something I thought was so delicious that I actually took a picture of the end result. Not out of conceit, but because I was so damn surprised I had to capture the moment:

Super Simple Sour Trahana Soup

(serves 4 as a first course or 2 as main course; total time to prepare, 30 minutes or less)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups good chicken broth (I make mine with a low-fat Kosher chicken broth mix so I can make it as rich as I want)

1 cup sour trahana

Water (if needed)

Garnish options:

Parsley, roughly chopped

Crumbled feta cheese

Croutons

Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Gently saute onion and garlic until translucent. I like to keep the amount of fat in my food to a minimum, so at this point I open the can of diced tomatoes and add the juice to the sauté as the onions and garlic won’t burn. Stir in the rest of the can of diced tomatoes, add the chicken broth and the trahana. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a medium-slow simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water is it gets a little too thick. Ladle into bowls and serve. You just might want to take a picture, too!