Italian Wedding Soup Recipe
This super tasty Italian wedding soup recipe is loaded with meatballs, veggies, escarole, and pasta simmered in delicious chicken stock.
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 pounds ground pork
- 1 peeled small diced yellow onion
- 4 finely minced cloves of garlic
- ¼ cup finely minced parsley
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 loaf Italian bread soaked in water and squeezed
- 5 eggs
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
For the Soup:
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 peeled medium diced yellow onion
- 3 finely minced cloves of garlic
- 4 stalks medium diced celery
- 4 peeled medium diced carrots
- 128 ounces chicken stock
- 2 heads escarole or 8 cups packed baby spinach
- 1 pound cooked and cooled acini di pepe
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- Meatballs: Combine all of the ingredients together in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed in and form small ping pong sized meatballs and set them on sheet trays lined with parchment paper.
- Bake in the oven at 400° for 22-25 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.
- Freeze ½ of the meatballs and set the other ½ aside.
- Soup: Add the olive oil to a large soup pot along with the onions, garlic, celery and carrots and sweat over low heat for 15 minutes. Do not brown them.
- Add in the broth and simmer over low to medium heat for 15 more minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper.
- To Plate: Place some of the broth and vegetables into a bowl. Add in some of the cooked and cooled acini di pepe along with a small handful of escarole, and 5-6 meatballs.
- Grate on optional parmesan cheese.
Notes
Make Ahead: You can make the soup two days ahead and keep the meatballs, broth with vegetables, and acini di pepe separate.
How to Store: Place it in a lid container and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can freeze I covered for up to 3 months. Thaw it for one day in the fridge before reheating it.
How to Reheat: Place your desired wedding soup into a small pot and heat over low heat until hot.
This recipe makes quite a few meatballs, which I did on purpose to freeze half the batch.
For a slight variation to this soup, use my Meatball Recipe, which has a few more herbs.
I prefer to cook, cool, and keep the pasta separate before adding it to each bowl served so as not to overcook it when it's sitting on the stovetop in the soup.
I add the escarole to each bowl served so that it does not wilt in the soup while sitting on the stove.
Nutrition
Calories: 644kcalCarbohydrates: 58gProtein: 32gFat: 32gSaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 108mgSodium: 688mgPotassium: 965mgFiber: 6gSugar: 15gVitamin A: 5292IUVitamin C: 10mgCalcium: 132mgIron: 4mg