Trahanas in Avgolemono Soup

Serves 4

This recipe, adapted from Ken Albala, features trahanas — a noodle found throughout Greece and the Middle East — and is inspired by a dish that Albala’s grandmother used to make. It’s “extraordinarily comforting, especially when you are feeling under the weather,” says Albala. (If you don’t feel up to making the pasta from scratch, you can just add some cooked orzo to the broth instead.)

Pasta

1 cup Greek yogurt, 2% or nonfat 1 cup bread flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 teaspoons olive oil

Soup

8 cups water or vegetable or

chicken broth 4 handfuls of greens (kale, spinach, parsley, etc.), cleaned and without ribs, finely chopped 4 lemons, juiced 4 large eggs Kosher salt to taste

To make the pasta: Mix the yogurt and flour in a large bowl, working with your hands to form a soft dough. Add the salt, then pour the oil into your hands over the bowl and work the dough further with oiled hands. Pinch off tiny bits of dough and roll into minuscule balls, each about the size of a pea, between your palms. (This should take about 5 minutes.) Place the balls on your cutting board.

To make the soup: Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Gently add the balls of dough to the pot, stirring so they don’t stick together, and then add the greens.

In a medium bowl, mix the lemon juice and eggs together. Take a spoonful of the hot water and add to the egg mixture. Add a few more spoonfuls and stir it up. Keep adding more of the hot water until you have a smooth lemony mass. Add that back to the pot with the trahanas and stir to combine. (By the time you add the lemon mixture to the soup, the pasta should be done.) Season to taste with salt and serve at once.