Chicken Pastina Soup

My thermostat is telling me it is 54 degrees outside but I am absolutely frozen.  Christopher was generous enough to share his latest cold with me and I have a sneaking suspicion I am running a fever.  I searched the garage freezer last night and pulled out a gallon of frozen chicken stock and a couple of chicken breasts.  David chopped all the vegetables up and the chicken (suspicious of that as well) and I have a pot of this Chicken Pastina Soup cooking on the stove.

I found this recipe on the back of the box of Progresso's chicken stock and it caught my eye.  Pastina is a small pasta that looks like little balls.  Very small and it cooks in all of 5 minutes.  Growing up we would get Pastina with butter and Parmesan cheese - total Italian comfort food when it was cold out or when we were sick.  Prince is the company that made it and if you grew up in the Boston area then you know that Wednesday was/is Prince Spaghetti day.  I remember the commercial that they used to have - a little Italian grandmother yelling through the streets of the North End, calling Anthony home for supper.  But I digress.

It has only been within the last year or two that I have actually been able to find Pastina here in Iowa, so of course I have a supply in the cabinet just it case it disappears.  This soup is super easy to put together, with the most time consuming part being the chopping of all the vegetables.  If you don't eat it all in one sitting (makes 10 good sized servings) and store it in the refrigerator, you'll notice that the pasta tends to soak up a lot of the liquid.  When I reheat it I add in additional chicken broth (usually just a can) so it gets back to its soupy state.  Personally I don't have a problem with thicker soup but there are some people in this house that do!

Chicken Pastina Soup
http://www.progresso.com/

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium) 
1/2 cup diced carrot (1 medium) 
1/2 cup diced celery (1 medium stalk) 
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 cartons (32 oz each) Progresso® chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon gray salt or sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 dried bay leaf
1 cup uncooked acini di pepe pasta or other small round pasta (8 oz)
2 cups chopped, lightly packed mustard greens, spinach, Swiss chard or other greens
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

In 5-quart stockpot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chicken, onion, carrot and celery; cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender.

Stir in tomatoes, broth, salt, pepper and bay leaf; heat to boiling. Stir in pasta; reduce heat.

Cover; simmer 15 minutes. Stir in greens just until wilted. Remove bay leaf. Serve with a twist of additional freshly ground pepper and sprinkle of cheese.
10 servings (1 1/2 cups each)