Stracciatella (from Italian stracciato, "torn apart") is an Italian egg-drop soup usually said to be "alla Romana" ("in the style of Rome"). It is prepared by beating eggs and adding grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sometimes semolina, and then adding this mixture to boiling broth. The broth is set whirling first with a whisk, and the beaten egg mixture added in a slow stream to produce the stracciatelle ("little shreds") of cooked egg in the broth, which is clarified by the process.
In Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Germany and The Netherlands, gelato with a vanilla base and chocolate shavings is also called stracciatella. It is somewhat analogous to chocolate chip ice cream in North America though the chocolate is intended to be less chunky and more integrated with the gelato. It was invented in 1962 by Enrico Panattoni, the owner of the "La Marianna", a gelateria in Bergamo in northern Italy.[1]
A particular kind of mozzarella (soft cheese) is also called stracciatella. Stracciatella is used as stuffing for the burrata from the Murgia region in Puglia. It is made with torn pieces of mozzarella and cream.