Goveđa juha s domaćim rezancima

The story

In Zagreb and across continental Croatia, Christmas Day lunch does not begin with the roast. It begins with soup: a clear golden broth, usually beef or chicken, with fine noodles, which Zagreb's own guide to the city's Christmas table calls the obligatory introduction to the meal. Only afterward comes the big roast, most often turkey with mlinci, and then the plates of cakes and cookies. Asked by a Croatian news site what could never be missing from her Christmas table, one well-known Zagreb television host named just two things: homemade beef soup and turkey. In Slavonia the soup is equally fixed, and the meat that flavored it is not wasted; it comes to the table as the next course, with tomato sauce. The same broth is the pride of an ordinary Sunday lunch and a dish Croatians associate with their grandmothers, and families who keep the old ways still roll and cut the noodles by hand. For families of Croatian descent in America, a pot of it simmering quietly on Christmas morning is one of the easiest holiday customs to carry on.