This hearty Italian Wedding Soup is sure to warm your belly on a cold winter day! Full of succulent meatballs, veggies and pasta…what more could you ask for?
RECIPE ON BLOG: https://houseatlongmeadow.com/italian-wedding-soup/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/house.at.long.meadow/?fbclid=IwAR1Z7CXTfN7lCxWau_89SAKeU5_dqwX38Rq3ZISAXfl1-j24uOPfMfjFuMo
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555272020275
PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.com/houseatlongmeadow/
Hey everybody and welcome back to the house at Long Meadow we are back in the kitchen today and we are getting ready to prep one of my most favorite soup recipes it’s really cold and windy outside today and so a soup for dinner is going to be perfect this soup is
Called Italian wedding soup and it is packed full of some really delicious meatballs so that is the first thing that we’ve got to get going today and we’re going to make a double batch of those meatballs so that we have plenty to throw back in the freezer for another
Meal since we’re making so many I have a couple of helpers in here with me today and they’re going to help me get these meatballs rolled out we have a little bit of prep work to do we’re going to get that going and then we’ll start rolling out these
Meatballs okay anytime I make meatballs for spaghetti or a soup or maybe for like a meatball sandwich I mix ground beef and ground pork mixing those two Meats together creates a really delicious meatball so that’s going to be the base of our meatballs that we’re about to get going like I
Said I’m making a double batch so I’ve got 2 lbs of a ground beef and our ground beef that we get is about an 8020 mix and then I’ve also got two pounds of a homemade Italian sausage okay the kids are getting some garlic cloves peeled that are going to
Go in and I’ve diced up a small onion you want to dice the onion up pretty small because you don’t want a lot of big chunks in these meatballs we’re going to roll the meatballs a little bit smaller than you traditionally would roll a classic meatball and so we don’t
Want just large chunks in there the next thing we’re going to add to our mixture is some freshly grated Parmesan cheese remember this is Italian wedding soup so we are going to step up all those Italian flavors and put in some some really great parmesan cheese the
Next thing we need to add to our mixture is all of the seasonings so first I’m going to go in with salt okay and then we’re going to go in with some black pepper some dried Sage some Italian seasoning and normally I would want to use a hot italian sausage in this recipe
Because it just really steps up the flavor but I don’t have any so what we’re going to do is I’m going to add in some cayenne and some crushed red pepper flakes to our mixture just to add some extra flavor it’s smells good step back please
Smells good the last couple of things we need to add to our meatballs are the components that are going to help these meatballs bind together and hold together well so I’ve got some plain breadcrumbs can I put some in here yeah you can pour it in just sprinkle it right
Over don’t spill it out whoa whoa whoa then we’re going to add in some eggs let let Jones do it can you add it Jones good job now we’re going to get our hands a little bit dirty and get these meatballs mixed up now anytime you’re mixing up meat for meatballs or a
Meatloaf you want to make sure that you don’t overwork the meat that can make it really tough so all we’re going to do is just get it mixed until everything’s just combined and then we’re going to move on okay when I’m rolling out a lot of Meatballs it makes it really easy to
Use a one tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out all the meatballs so I’m going to scoop and sis is going to roll these out for me now these meatballs we are just rolling out and we’re placing them on a baking tray that has a wire rack in the bottom
Now I don’t have one so I’ve just taken a couple wire racks out of our dehydrator machine laid down some parchment paper and set those racks on my baking sheet the nice thing about using a little cookie scoop like this is that it gets all of the Meatballs pretty
Even in size I often find myself if I’m rolling them out by hand getting them all different sizes and so this helps keep everything all even that way it all Cooks evenly when it’s in the Oven all right we’ve got all our meatballs rolled out I’m going to get washed up and then we’re going to pop these in a 350° oven for about 16 to 18 Minutes Oh all right we’re back over at the stove and I’m doing some prep on the vegetables that are going to go in this Italian wedding soup our meatballs are done they’ve cooled we’ve pulled them out of the oven and gotten the rest of them off and into the freezer for
Another day now Italian wedding soup is a traditional Italian soup that dates back for hundreds of years the literal name of Italian wedding sup it is minestra minata now I have a terrible Italian accent but what that means is married soup it has absolutely nothing
To do with weddings but it has to do with the marriage of ingredients so many many years ago the lower income and the poor Italians the low working class would pull together simple ingredients that they had it could be vegetables left from the day before broth left from
The day before anything that they could get their hands on that they would pull together and make a simple home soup and that’s where that name comes from it’s just the marriage of those simple ingredients now traditionally that soup would contain some sort of meat and some
Sort of green so a spinach an escarole a cabbage some type of green that they had that they would mix with all these other vegetables and then of course with most Italian dishes there was pasta today we’re going to be doing a more modern version of that soup if you order this
In an Italian restaurant it’s probably going to have some type of meatball and maybe some spinach or kale in it so let’s finish prepping these veggies and we’ll get everything going in our stock pot first we’re going to put in some good olive oil and get that stock pot going on a medium
High heat so the vegetables that I am including in my Italian wedding soup today are just celery onions carrots pretty simple traditional ingredients and then I’ve got some tomatoes that I’m going to dice up and throw in as well I’m not going to dice anything too small
I want the vegetables to be a little bit chunky we want to know what we’re eating when we Ladle out some of that soup when you are dicing up vegetables like carrots and celery and onions I always keep all the little extra pieces off the vegetables when I
Dice them up throw these in a freezer bag pop them into the freezer and then whenever I’m making some homemade broth or homemade stock I can pull these out and toss them in it’s a great way to not waste anything all right our stock pot is heated up so let’s get these vegetables Going we’re just going to sauté these down until they start to get translucent you know I think what makes this Italian wedding soup such a classic is that it just combines a bunch of simple ingredients and I often find that those recipes that have the most simple ingredients are often the ones that
Bring us the most Comfort at least it does for me all right these veggies are cooked down nicely I’m going to go ahead and add in my chopped tomatoes I want that tomato flavor to be a little bit more concentrated so I’m going to add in about a tablespoon or so
Of a good quality tomato paste all right now I’m going to go in with about a cup of a good dry white wine and now we just need to season everything and get our broth added in going to add in a bay leaf and then about a teaspoon of
Salt and then I’m going to use a white pepper but you could use black pepper if that’s what you have we’re going to pour in our stock now this is a beef broth you could use chicken broth if that’s what you have or I’ve also mixed them before and it turns out just
Fine you just want a really good quality broth this is packed full of flavor there’s a lot of collagen in it lots of good nutrients going into this dish okay so we’re going to get a lid on that and then I’m going to let that simmer until all of the veggies are nice
And Soft our vegetables are all nice and soft the soup is flavored perfectly so the last thing we need to do is add in our pasta the greens portion of this Italian wedding soup I’m using a spinach you could also use maybe a cabbage or a kale whatever you prefer and then we’re going
To get our meatballs back in and get those heated through so traditionally an Italian wedding soup they would use some type of small pasta I have a aini de Pepe which is a really small pasta I’ve also used orzo in the past any type of small pasta that you have would be fine
In this dish all right that’s about half a box now this pasta takes about 10 minutes to cook through so we’re going to go ahead add in our spinach and our meatballs that should give them enough time to heat through and allow the spinach to
Wilt now I just gave the spin spinach a rough chop you don’t have to chop it too fine now it looks like a lot of spinach but it is going to wilt down quite a bit in this soup all right in with the meatballs try not to Splash hot broth
Everywhere all right all in we’ll give it a quick stir put the lid back on and let that simmer for about 10 minutes all right in the meantime I’m going to grate up some fresh parmesan that is what we’re going to be topping this soup with and eating it with some
Really nice fresh baked bread it’s going to be Delicious Anytime there’s a fresh loaf of bread in the house the kids are right there in the kitchen ready for a warm piece of bread with some butter and I don’t blame Them all right let’s give this soup a little taste smells Wonderful those meatballs are so wonderful they’re spiced perfectly and add just a touch of heat to this dish the broth has a really deep tomato rich flavor it’s just wonderful for a cold day like today as always we so enjoy you stopping by and visiting the kitchen here at
House at Long Meadow I hope you love this recipe and that you go out and make and enjoy a wonderful bowl of Italian wedding soup and I hope the soup brings you as much warmth and joy as it does me see you next time you can find the full recipe on our
Blog the link is below in the description box and please do me a favor and like And subscribe