The BEST Italian Wedding Soup! Filled with homemade browned meatballs, fresh veggies and tiny bits of pasta. Total comfort food any day of the year!
Servings: 6
Prep25minutes
Cook25minutes
Ready in: 50minutes
Ingredients
Meatballs
8ozlean ground beef
8ozground pork
1/2cupfresh hearty white bread crumbs*
1/4cupchopped fresh parsley
1 1/2tspminced fresh oregano
1/2cupfinely shredded parmesan
1large egg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1Tbspolive oil
Soup
1Tbspolive oil
1 1/4cups1/4-inch diced carrots
1 1/4cupsdiced yellow onion
3/4cup1/4-inch diced celery
4clovesgarlic, minced (1 1/2 Tbsp)
5(14.5 oz) cans low-sodium chicken broth
1cupdry acini de pepe or orzo pasta**
6ozfresh spinach, chopped
Finely shredded parmesan, for serving
Instructions
For the meatballs:
Add beef and pork to a large mixing bowl. Add in bread crumbs, parsley, oregano, parmesan, egg, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
Gently toss and break up mixture with hands to evenly coat and distribute. Shape mixture into very small meatballs, about 3/4 inch to 1 inch and transfer to a large plate.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs and cook until browned, turning occasionally (to brown on 2 or 3 sides), about 4 minutes total.
Transfer meatballs to a plate lined with paper towels while leaving oil in skillet. Repeat process with remaining meatballs (note that meatballs won't be cooked through at this point, they'll continue to cook through in the soup).
For the soup:
While meatballs are browning, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onions and celery and saute until veggies have softened about 6 - 8 minutes, add garlic and saute 1 minute longer.
Pour in chicken broth, season soup with salt and pepper to taste and bring mixture to a boil. Add in pasta and meatballs, reduce heat to light boil (about medium or medium-low).
Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until pasta is tender and meatballs have cooked through, about 10 minutes, while adding in spinach during the last minute of cooking. Serve warm, sprinkle each serving with parmesan cheese.
Notes
*I recommend using bread such as a La Brea french loaf. Just grind up a slice in a food processor to find crumbs. Save the remaining bread for serving (slathered with butter of course) or freeze for another later use.
**If you like a more brothier soup you can reduce pasta to 3/4 cup. Note that as the soup sits the pasta will absorb more broth so you can add more broth to thin the soup as desired.