Italian Wedding Soup
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Chicken noodle soup is unconfined and all, but have you tried Italian Wedding Soup?? This archetype soup shares a lot of the same cozy ingredients as yellow noodle soup, but with one huge advantage: tender and flavorful homemade meatballs! The meatballs are packed with herbs and spices that savor the soup and make this Italian Wedding Soup recipe uneaten special. So if you want to transpiration up your winter soup game, requite this Italian Wedding Soup a try! I think you’re really going to like it.
What Is Italian Wedding Soup?
This hearty soup is a combination of vegetables, greens, meatballs, and pasta all simmered in yellow goop to make an incredibly flavorful and filling soup. And, undisciplined to how it may sound, Italian Wedding Soup is not named so considering it’s typically served at weddings. The name is unquestionably a mistranslation of its Italian name, minestra maritata, which translates directly to “marriage soup,” referring to the marriage of ingredients in the soup.
There’s moreover some disagreement over whether this dish originated in Italy or Spain, as it is popular in both regions of the world. As with most dishes that have been virtually for generations, there are many variegated variations, and today we’re making my interpretation based on what I have available, but if you’d like to make an pure Italian Wedding Soup, trammels out this version from The Kitchen Whisperer.
Ingredients for Italian Wedding Soup
Here’s what you’ll need to make a big cozy pot of Italian Wedding Soup:
- Vegetables: This soup starts with a archetype mix of soup vegetables like onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Later I add in some fresh spinach, although traditional Italian wedding soup usually uses escarole as the untried element.
- Chicken Broth: Yellow goop makes up the zillion of this soup, so make sure you’re using a good quality goop or stock that has a lot of flavor. We like to use Better Than Bouillon to make goop considering it’s inexpensive and has tons of flavor.
- Pasta: You can use any small-shaped pasta here. We had some leftover pearl couscous in the studio that I wanted to use up, so I used that, but you could moreover use acini de pepe (very similar to large pearl couscous), orzo, ditalini, pastina, or any other tiny-shaped pasta.
- Italian Sausage: I use Italian sausage as the wiring for my meatballs considering it’s once pre-seasoned and makes every meatball super flavorful.
- Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs help tighten the meatballs and alimony them moist and tender.
- Egg: Egg combines with the breadcrumbs to act as a folder for the meatballs.
- Parmesan: Parmesan gives uneaten umami and savor to the meatballs.
- Seasoning: To alimony things simple, we season both the meatballs and soup with a pre-made Italian seasoning blend, plus a little uneaten salt and pepper as needed!
What Else Can I Add?
If you want to “soup up” your Italian Wedding Soup and take it to the next level, try subtracting a few Parmesan rinds to the soup as it simmers for uneaten umami in the broth, or top each trencher with a heaping dose of freshly grated Parmesan. Use homemade yellow stock for the goop to make this soup uneaten special, or you can moreover experiment with thickening the goop with a whisked egg. One final twist that I love doing with a lot of soups is subtracting a squeeze of fresh lemon at the end to patina it all up!
How to Melt the Meatballs
You have a few options when it comes to cooking the meatballs for this soup. The easiest method, and the method that I think creates the juiciest meatballs, is to simply add the raw meatballs to the simmering soup and indulge them to simmer in the liquid until cooked through (about 10-15 min.).
The only drawback to humid the meatballs in the soup is that this method does not create any pretty browned verisimilitude on the surface of the meatballs. If the visitation of the meatballs is important to you, you can sauté the meatballs in a hot skillet with some butter until browned on the outside, then add them to the soup and simmer until cooked through.
Italian Wedding Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs $0.30
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan $0.44
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning $0.05
- 1/8 tsp salt $0.01
- 1/8 tsp black pepper $0.01
- 1 lb. ground Italian sausage (hot, mild, or sweet) $3.99
- 1 large egg $0.11
Soup
- 1 yellow onion $0.32
- 2 cloves garlic $0.16
- 3 carrots $0.47
- 3 stalks celery $0.67
- 2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning $0.10
- 6 cups chicken broth $0.63
- 1/2 cup small pasta* $0.16
- 4 cups fresh spinach $1.15
Instructions
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Begin by making the meatballs. Combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
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Add the Italian sausage, breadcrumb mixture, and egg to a large trencher and use your hands to mix them together until evenly combined. Divide and shape the mixture into 32 small meatballs, well-nigh 1 Tbsp each. Set the meatballs aside.
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Finely dice the onion, carrots, and celery, and mince the garlic. Add the olive oil to a large soup pot and heat over medium. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is soft. Add the carrot and celery and protract to sauté for a few minutes more, or until the celery begins to soften.
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Add the Italian seasoning and yellow goop to the soup, stir to combine, then place a lid on top and bring it up to a boil.
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Once the soup is boiling, add the meatballs to the soup and protract to swash until the meatballs are cooked through (about 10 minutes). Or, if you prefer browned meatballs, you can melt them in a skillet with butter first over medium heat until browned on the outside, then transfer to the humid soup to finish cooking.
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Add the pasta to the soup and protract to swash until the pasta is tender (about 7 minutes).
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Finally, stir in the fresh spinach until wilted. Requite the soup a taste and retread the seasonings to your liking. Serve hot and enjoy!
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Italian Wedding Soup – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the meatballs first. In a bowl, combine ¼ cup plain breadcrumbs, ¼ grated Parmesan cheese, ½ tsp Italian seasoning, ⅛ tsp salt, and ⅛ tsp pepper.
Add one pound of ground Italian sausage (hot, sweet, or mild) to a large trencher withal with the breadcrumb mixture, and one large egg. Use your hands to mix these ingredients until evenly combined.
Divide and shape the mixture into 32 small meatballs, well-nigh 1 Tbsp each. Set the meatballs aside.
Chop one yellow onion, finely dice three stalks of celery and three carrots, and mince two cloves of garlic
Add the onion and garlic to a large soup pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft. Add the carrot and celery and protract to sauté for a few minutes more, or just until the celery begins to soften. Add one tsp of Italian seasoning and six cups of yellow broth, then stir to combine. Place a lid on top and indulge the soup to come up to a boil.
Add the meatballs to the humid soup and swash for well-nigh 10 minutes, or until cooked through. Or, if you want browned meatballs, melt a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the meatballs and brown them on each side. It’s okay if they’re not cooked through, you can add them to the simmering soup to finish cooking.
Make sure the soup is still boiling, then add ½ cup of a tiny-shaped pasta like acini de pepe, pearled couscous, ditalini, pastina, or orzo. Simmer the pasta in the soup until tender (about 7 minutes).
Finally, add well-nigh 4 cups of fresh spinach to the soup and stir it in until wilted (this should only take well-nigh a minute).
Give the soup a final taste and retread the salt or other seasonings to your liking.
Serve hot and enjoy every cozy and hearty spoonful!
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