Biavetta

Ingredients Wheat flour and water in the past, and today wheat flour and eggs.

How Made The flour is sifted and kneaded long and vigorously with water or, today, eggs, and left to rest. Tiny pieces, each one the size of a grain of rice, are pulled off the dough and worked between the thumb and forefinger to give them a slightly flattened shape. The pastina is cooked in meat broth.

Also Known As No alternative names.

How Served In meat broth.

Where Found Piedmont, typical of Asti.

Remarks This handmade pastina, which is made with infinite patience and considerable dexterity, used to be prepared especially for la minestra del battere il grano,²⁵ a tasty soup of meat broth that also contains chicken giblets. It was served to the men during the harvest.