Italian Wedding Soup

Print Recipe

Course Soup

Cuisine Italian

Keyword escarole, italian food, Italian wedding soup, meatballs, parmigiano, pecorino, soup, spinach, Veal, white beans

Servings 4 People

Ingredients

Eleonora’s meatball mixture:

1 LB ground veal
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 large eggs beaten
½ yellow onion finely diced (food processor)
3 large or 4 small cloves garlic minced
4 tbsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Soup

Olive oil
1 med carrot diced to sliced into ¼ inch rounds
1 celery stalk finely diced
1 small onion finely diced (can be chopped in a small food processor along with the celery)
3-4 cloves of garlic finely minced
2 peeled tomatoes canned, crushed by hand
5-6 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
Salt to taste
Parmigiano rind small piece for simmering to flavour broth
1-2 Rosemary sprigs
1 bay leaf
150 g pastina such as Stelline Orzo or Acini di pepe
2 bunches baby spinach leaves or 4 cups approx. escarole, roughly chopped
Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated for sprinkling
Optional - Canned white beans such as cannellini

Instructions

Start by making your meatball mixture.

In a medium bowl, add meat, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon.
Add chopped onion and garlic, cheese, breadcrumbs, salt and beaten eggs.
Combine the mixture with a large fork until ingredients are evenly combined then knead a little with your hands scooping from the bottom to the top. Don’t overmix.
Take a large cookie sheet and cover it with parchment paper.
Roll out your mini meatballs to about the size of a marble and place them on the prepared cookie sheet, not touching one another.
At this point you can either bake your meatballs at 400F (uncovered) until just cooked through or quickly pan sear to get some browning on them. I recommend this way as it’s more flavourful.
Set cooked meatballs aside as you make your soup.

Soup

Heat a stock pot/Dutch oven on medium heat and add about 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion, carrot and celery and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Do not brown.
Add minced garlic and crushed tomatoes.
Add bay leaf and rosemary and cook for a minute or so until fragrant.
Add broth and water
Add salt (start with a tsp and taste again later, adjusting if necessary)
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer
Add escarole or spinach leaves
When the vegetables are tender, add the desired number of meatballs to the broth to warm through. (put about half of the total quantity of meatballs)
Meanwhile boil your pastina in salted water.
Once done, drain and add pastina to soup.
Ladle into bowls and top with freshly grated Pecorino Romano, freshly cracked pepper and a ribbon of olive oil
Serve with grilled Italian bread and enjoy!

Notes

This recipe will make more mini meatballs than you’ll need but you can cook then freeze them for a future use or store them in the fridge to make pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs for a quick and hearty weeknight meal.