More meatballs! The picture does not do the soup justice, but trust me, it’s delicious.
This is another goodie from Ina Garten’s which is a current fave. There has always been something super appealing about Italian Wedding Soup. Pasta, meatballs and spinach in a yummy broth? Sign me up! The photo in Ina’s book makes the soup look absolutely deicious.
I decided to get all homespun with this soup by making my own broth. In a recent issue of Cooks Illustrated they investigated the intricacies of making the best chicken broth. It essentially involved using pre-packed broth as well as ground chicken and chicken breasts along with the usual vegetable medley. I skipped the ground chicken and used chicken legs because they were cheaper. The broth turned out yummy but a bit fatty. I got really tired of skimmy the fat off the top. I had all intentions of letting the broth cool and the fat solidify but that didn’t happen.
As for the soup itself I made some changes as usual. Ina suggests using ground chicken and chicken sausage for the meatballs. I do not love chicken so I went for ground pork and pork sausage. Yum. I also skipped the Pecorino Romano cheese. For no reason other than that I didn’t feel like buying any. Other than those changes I kept the recipe intact.
This soup smelled AMAZING while simmering away. I swear, if I just kept a pot of soup on the stove simmering away all winter life would be better. Some people like the smell of an apple pie in the oven, I like the smell of soup.
This is definitely a recipe that’s being filed away in my mental filing cabinet. It’s delicious and filling. LOVE IT.
Here’s what others had to say…
Annie’s Eats
Pots and Pins
Rating: ****1/2 (out of 5)
Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 3/4 pound ground chicken
- 1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed
- 2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the soup:
- 2 tablespoons good olive oil
- 1 cup minced yellow onion
- 1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 10 cups homemade chicken stock
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars
- 1/4 cup minced fresh dill
- 12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don’t have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.
(2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics)
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