I always wondered if Italian Wedding Soup is actually served at Italian Weddings. After some quick googling I discovered that no, it is not wedding food instead the name comes from a mistranslation of the original Italian name. Regardless of the origin it is a nice filling soup with lots of veggies, pasta and meatballs.
The recipe called for ground chicken but I complete forgot to buy some so I thawed some chicken breasts and minced them in the food processor. Aren’t I clever?
In the meat balls there was also Italian sausages (taken out of their casings), fresh parsley, generous handful of parmegiano reggiano, pepper, an egg and some bread crumbs. I mixed the whole thing up with my hands, not one of my favourite jobs in the kitchen might I add. It is messy and your hands get really cold.
I made meatballs with my mini ice cream scoop and put them in the oven to cook while I made the soup.
The soup base was pretty simple with carrots, onion, salt, pepper, dried basil and dried dill.
Once that was cooked I added chicken broth and a superlatively generous amount of white wine, since booze makes everything taste better.
I also added in some mini pasta bows and turned the broth up to a boil. I wanted to buy the fancy-schmancy pasta shells that are imported from Italy and cost twice as much but I was vetoed by The Husband. I suppose anyone who is not a foodie cannot get excited about that sort of thing.
After half and hour or so (although honestly, I made these two weeks ago so I can’t even remember how long I baked them), my meatball were ready. The red bits are sausage, I know, it makes it look as though they are not fully cooked but they are.
A close-up of one of the meatballs. You can see the little green flecks of parsley peeking through.
The meatballs went for a swim in the broth along with a few handfuls of spinach. Once the spinach was wilted I served the soup.
I really liked this soup. It was a good balance between veggies, tasty meatballs and pasta. I also liked the taste of dill in this soup, I don’t use it that often in recipes but maybe I should. This made a lot of leftovers and reheated really well.
