Thursday, October 29, 2009

Estonian Milk Soup with Pasta Shapes

Pasta and milk soup / Makaroni-piimasupp

This week is school holidays in Estonia, and my 10-year-old nephew stayed with us for a few days. We went for walks, swimming at the local swimming pool, did some homework together, he spent hours entertaining our little daughter. Of course, we also cooked and ate food together (nachos, enchiladas, quesadillas and other food with high kid appeal). Our last meal together was lunch on Wednesday and I offered to cook him something special. His request: makaroni-piimasupp or pasta and milk soup. I was baffled - I hadn't had that humble soup for almost two decades and I didn't think today's kids eat it. I was proven wrong :)

Furthermore, I had no intentions to blog about this particular milk soup and didn't focus too much on getting a good picture. But then somebody saw the picture in Flickr and asked for the recipe, so here you go after all...

Although the soup has some sugar in it, it's more of a "savoury" soup, served as a meal on its own, preferably with some ham sandwiches on the side.

Estonian Milk Soup with Pasta Shapes
(Makaroni-piimasupp)
Serves 4

500 ml water (2 cups)
1 tsp salt
100 g short pasta (1 cup)
750 ml full-fat milk (3 cups)
a generous pinch of sugar
1 Tbsp butter

Bring water to the vigorous boil, add salt and pasta shapes. Reduce heat to simmering, then boil for 5-7 minutes, until pasta is al dente.
Pour in the milk, give it all a stir and boil for another few minutes, until pasta is fully cooked.
Season with a pinch of sugar and some more salt, if you wish. Stir in the butter and serve.

20 comments:

Ibán said...

Oh, Pille, I'm flattered :)
Thank you sooo very much for posting the recipe along with the little delicious story (I've enjoyed both equally). Many years ago I remember eating a "alleged Norwegian milk and pasta soup", and I hadn't heard or seen (let alone eaten) anything like that ever since.

Now I got two nice childhood memories of you to cook this Winter (if we ever reach to have such a thing here in Barcelona!): the fermented oats and this soup. I'll post about it properly :) Aitäh!!

elmey said...

My mother used to make this soup once in a while; until I saw your post I had completely forgotten about it. I can't believe kids are still asking for it. That's just adorable.

farida said...

Sounds very delicious! It reminds me of a similar soup we make in Azerbaijan, but we eat it as kasha, for breakfast and it is thicker in consistency.

Kirsike said...

Children do eat this soup a lot and love it! Actually, this kind of soups (with pasta or rice) are the only soups all my three kids eat;)
I still love this soup, my comfort food;)

lynda said...

Thanks for posting your recipe.


My mother use to make this for us all the time. It was the perfect lunch after coming in from the cold. I sprinkled my soup with a layer of cinnamon sugar. It certainly brings back memories.

thanks!
lynda

Anonymous said...

See on küll tore, et meie lapsepõlve õudus,piimasupp, välismaalastele lausa delicious tundub :)

Mrs. M. said...

I had this soup when I was growing up in Russia! Great to see it here--it sounds so odd that most people wouldn't believe that it's an actual meal. I remember it as basically hot milk with cooked pasta and a pat of butter.

Pene said...

Reminds me of the food in hospital when I broke my ankle 2 years ago.
Last night your soup inspired me to make a "white" soup to which I could have added milk, but I didn't. My soup had onions, potato, cauliflower, button mushrooms, cooked rice, and was seasoned with salt & white pepper. We ate it with warm home-baked bread rolls.

Alanna Kellogg said...

Isn't it funny, some times, the way such simple things capture our imagination ... this is lovely, Pille!

suzanna said...

We have the same soup in Slovakia - my mum used to cook it when we were kids. I haven't had it for good 20 years. Only one difference - in our soup pasta dough is grated so it forms funny shapes, it is mot regular pasta. Oh, memories ;-)

Margit Markus said...

Tänud Pille hea idee eest! Mait söi hea isuga ja Michael vähe ettevaatlikumalt (lisades ka ohtralt pipart) piimasuppi ning mina püüdsin meenutada,kuna ma viimati piimasuppi söin...

ptasia said...

Oh, this reminds me of summer camps or package holidays in Poland when I was a child. Breakfast would always include some kind of zupa mleczna (milk soup): milk soup with fine pasta, porridge or a runny version of cream of wheat. I never liked it very much then, but now I sometimes use leftover pasta in a similar way, i.e. pour over some hot milk, add some honey or similar and eat for breakfast.

L said...

I'm so glad to see this posted! My son has been begging me to make it for him. He used to have it at school and asked me to call the school 'chefs' for the recipe. Luckily I don't have to do that!

Lennuk said...

Oh, milk and dumpling soup is the best. Add herring sandwich and call it heaven!

Magdalena said...

, whenI was a kid, I was tortured this type of soup in school and in summer time. Our Polish version is very similar. Why the soup was a torture? Because the milk was burnt very often, noodles were overcooked....I can see now, that this milk soup is part of our Middle-East European heritage. My French husband, for example, did hear about the milk soup :)
Kind regards.

Pille said...

Iban - yes, I was talking about you ;)

Elmey - I thought it was adorable, too.

Farida - we have lots of milk kasha soups (incl. one with cream of wheat), but these aren't breakfast soups.

Kirsike - comfort food indeed!

Lynda - you're welcome and I'm pleased to hear that it brought back some nice memories.

Tiguteek - minul pole mingeid õudsaid mälestusi koduste piimasuppidega. Koolisupid võisid tõesti koledad olla - jahtunud, piimanahaga jms. Kodus oli hea!

Julia - that's it - hot milk, cooked pasta and "an eye of butter"!

Pene - those "summer soups" with vegetables are especially excellent with fresh "baby" vegetables.

Thank you, Alanna :)

Suzanna - seems it's popular all over eastern and central Europe! Perhaps it's the cost factor ;)

Margit - ma täitsa kujutan ette, et Michael oli kahtleval seisukohal :D

Ptazia - we make the runny cream of wheat soup quite regularly.

L - a true children's soup,eh?

Lennuk - piima-klimbisupp is indeed even better than piima-makaronisupp!

Magdalena - haven't come across similar soup in any French cookbook, I must admit ;)

Katrina said...

i gotta make this one, haven't had it for like....25 years :)

Nif @ Yummly said...

This recipe caught my eye because it's very similar to a German soup that is made with milk and egg noodles. I liked this soup, especially with the addition of the small amount of sugar. It was a nice touch! I used orzo and made as directed except for subbing homo milk with 1%. Made for PRMR.

Breezermum @ Yummly said...

I've never had anything quite like this. It seemed to have more flavors of a hot breakfast cereal than a soup.....guess I'm giving away that I like a little sugar in my oatmeal :). Very easy to make, but a bit bland. Probably good for someone that is feeling under the weather. Thanks for sharing!

Tara said...

This was absolutely delicious! My son especially loved it. It reminded me of Milchnudeln in Germany.