Passatelli are a traditional soup made from eggs, breadcrumbs and cheese, often enriched with lemon zest, nutmeg and black pepper. Once mixed, these ingredients form a cylindrical dough that is cooked in a rich broth of capon, beef or chicken. 

They are a typical dish of the cuisine of the Bassa Reggiana and are considered an evolution of stracciatella, a classic eggs-and-pastina soup (tiny pasta shapes commonly used in broths, with a texture similar to porridge). Like many traditional dishes, passatelli have humble origins: prepared in farmhouses, they were shaped using the ferro, a convex metal disc with wooden handles and holes. Their name reflects this process: the dough was pressed against the ferro, so that the passatelli took their characteristic form by “passing” (passatelli, from the Italian verb “passare”, En. to pass) through the holes.