Grandma Sackley's Chicken Soup

When my grandfather, Tomaso came to this country from Amalfi Coast of Italy, his last name was 'Sacchitella.' Italians at the time were looked down upon and he came here to make a better life, so my grandfather 'Americanized' his name and became Thomas Sackley. He then met my grandmother,  Giuseppina Genuso and they married and were known as Thomas and Josephine Sackley.

My grandmother, who is still alive, and tougher than ever bless her soul, made this for us if we weren't feeling well. My grandmother is neither vegan nor gluten free, so neither is this soup and it's better that way.

You will need:
8 cups of broth, chicken broth or your homemade vegetable broth
2 medium chicken breasts, or about 1.5 lbs of chicken (you can use thighs or any part you would prefer)
1 onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 large carrots, diced
1/2 of a bunch of celery, diced
2 cups of kale, cut into very**thin strips
1 cup of diced tomatoes
1 lb of ancini de pepe (or any other pasta you would like, if you want it to be gluten free you can do gluten free pasta, rice or quinoa...but I will not change my grandma's recipe in my own kitchen: NEVER!)
Salt
Pepper
Marjoram

First, put the diced onion, minced garlic and your chicken (do not cut or fiddle with them, just put them in whole) into your 8 cups of broth on the stove over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and then turn to medium and let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. This will cook the chicken and infuse your broth with tastiness.

After 45min/1 hour, remove your chicken from the broth and let cool on a plate. While the chicken cools, put the diced carrot, diced celery, chopped kale,  a dash of salt, pepper, two tablespoons of marjoram and the diced tomatoes into the broth, which should still be on medium heat. Likely, your broth has cooked down quite a bit, close to half of the original amount your started with-- if this is the case add 3 or 4 more cups of water or broth while the vegetables cook.

Cook the veggies and soup on medium heat for 15 minutes, or until the carrots begin to soften.

When the chicken is cool, begin to shred it with a fork and your fingers. 

Put the chicken back into the soup once it is shredded and turn the heat to low or medium low. 

Start your water boiling for the pasta, in my case the ancini de pepe. I prefer these little pasta pearls because of their pleasing texture, you don't often get to have tiny chewy pasta balls. They will boil for about 8 minutes to be al dente: perfecto!

Spoon a heaping ladle of pastina and soup into your bowl and serve. (I don't add the pastina directly into the big pot of soup until I am ready to store the leftovers in the fridge, usually. This recipe makes enough for about 10-12 servings so you are definitely going to have leftovers.)

Garnish with a tiny pit of parsley and Parmesan cheese if you so desire.

Enjoy!! :)