Homemade Italian Wedding Soup Recipe

This super tasty wedding soup recipe is loaded with homemade meatballs, veggies, escarole and pasta that’s simmered in a delicious chicken stock.

Ingredients for this recipe:

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

Serves: 12
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Procedures:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
2. 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.
3. Bake in the oven at 400° for 22-25 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.
4. Freeze ½ of the meatballs and set the other ½ aside.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Grate on optional parmesan cheese.

CHEF NOTES:

• HOW TO MAKE AHEAD: Make the soup and keep the meatballs, broth with vegetables and acini di pepe separate until the day of serving it.
• HOW TO REHEAT: Place your desired amount of wedding soup into a small size pot and heat over low heat until hot. You can also simply heat in a microwave until hot.
• HOW TO STORE: Place in a container with a lid and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
• HOW TO FREEZE: You can absolutely freeze it and it does so well. Once the soup is cool in the fridge in a container with a lid, place in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw it for 1 day in the refrigerator before reheating it.
• This recipe makes quite a few meatballs, which I did on purpose so I could freeze half the batch.