Italian Wedding Soup
Pour the white wine while you're cooking and transport yourself to Italy.
All I can say on this one is thanks Ina Garten! I pretty much followed her recipe verbatim and it came out so so good. This was my first time every making Italian Wedding soup and it came out so good. A wonderful, meaty, but still light, soup to enjoy in the late spring leading into summer.
*yields about 4 servingsIngredients
For the meatballs
1 pound Italian sausage
2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs
2 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons milk
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small yellow onion
2-3 carrots
2 stalks celery
8 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine (I had vermouth on hand)
1 cup small pasta such as tubetini, stars, or couscous (I used Trader Joe’s harvest grain blend)
Bunch minced fresh dill
12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed
Directions
Cook the meatballs: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the ground sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, 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.
Saute vegetables: Chop onion, carrots, and celery. Heat olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the vegetables and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cook soup: Add the wine and simmer for a minute. Add chicken stock 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, salt and pepper.
Finish and serve: Add the meatballs and simmer for 1 minute. 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.
