Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs | Comfort in a Bowl!

Despite the name, Italian Wedding Soup isn’t traditionally served at Italian weddings. The name comes from a translation of the Italian phrase “minestra maritata”, which means “married soup” — a reference to the marriage of flavors between meat and greens, not a ceremony!

Originating in Southern Italy, especially regions like Campania and Lazio, the soup was adapted by Italian immigrants in America. Over time, ingredients like turkey, orzo, and baby spinach were introduced to create a lighter, more weeknight-friendly version — like the one we’re making today!
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🧾 Ingredients

🧆 For the Meatballs:
• 1½ lbs ground turkey (you can also use ground beef, pork or a combination of these)
• 1 large egg
• ¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
• ¾ cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
• ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper

🍲 For the Soup:
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 3 ribs celery, diced
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 3 small carrots, diced
• ⅛ tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 64 oz (8 cups) chicken broth
• 1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
• 5 oz fresh baby spinach
• Parmesan rind (optional, for added depth)
• Extra Parmesan cheese (optional, for garnish)
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👨‍🍳 Instructions

🔹 Step 1: Make the Meatballs
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. In a medium bowl, combine ground turkey, egg, panko, Parmesan, parsley, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
3. Mix until just combined. Avoid overmixing to keep the meatballs tender.
4. Form into small, bite-sized meatballs (about ¾ to 1 inch).
5. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned.
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🔹 Step 2: Build the Soup Base
1. In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat.
2. Add celery, onion, and carrots. Season with the ⅛ tsp each of salt and pepper. Sauté until the vegetables are softened (about 5–7 minutes).
3. Stir in minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.
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🔹 Step 3: Add Broth and Pasta
1. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. (Optional) Add a Parmesan rind for extra umami.
3. Once boiling, add uncooked orzo and the cooked turkey meatballs.
4. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low, and simmer until pasta is al dente and meatballs are tender — about 10 minutes, or per pasta package instructions.
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🔹 Step 4: Add the Greens & Serve
1. Turn off the heat and stir in fresh baby spinach until wilted (1–2 minutes).
2. Serve hot, garnished with extra Parmesan cheese, if desired.

• Escarole is traditional in Italy, but baby spinach is a modern, milder alternative.
• Turkey lightens the dish, making it a great meal-prep or family dinner option.
• A Parmesan rind infuses rich, cheesy flavor without extra effort

Some items I used in this video:
Teakhaus Cutting Board: https://amzn.to/4o1udxK
Anchor Hocking 6oz custard cups: https://amzn.to/4maopAp
OXO Mixing Bowls: https://amzn.to/4f2DGAN
Henckels 15-Piece Knife Set: https://amzn.to/3TOtkel
Small Cookie Scoop (stainless steel): https://amzn.to/40w6L1K
Microplane Zester: https://amzn.to/419pwbp
Nordic Ware Nonstick Baking Sheets: https://amzn.to/4m51jLk
Tramontina Dutch Oven: https://amzn.to/3GP6LTU
Dowan 8.5” Pasta Bowls, Set of 6: https://amzn.to/4lB5HlD
Caldo Cotton Apron: https://amzn.to/3IF7pUA

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Welcome to Hope’s Homemade Kitchen. If you’re new here, I’m Hope and each week I bring you step-by-step recipes that you can make in your own kitchen, no matter what your experience level. Today, we’re making Italian wedding soup. Now, you may be surprised to know that Italian wedding soup is typically not even served at weddings. The name actually comes from the marriage of flavors within the soup. The savory meatballs, the fresh vegetables, and the Parmesan cheese. What could be more comforting? Now, let’s get started and I’ll show you the ingredients. The ingredients for the Italian wedding soup. Starting from the left for the meatballs, I’ve got bread crumbs, ground turkey, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, an egg, parmesan cheese, flat leaf parsley, and salt and pepper. Now, for the broth, I’ll be using salt and pepper, orzo pasta, spinach, olive oil, chicken broth, onion, celery, carrot, fresh minced garlic, and I’m throwing in a parmesan rind for flavor. Okay, I’ve started by preheating my oven to 350°. And the first thing we’re going to do is put together our meatballs to start cooking. Now, I’m going to cook my meatballs in the oven, but you could do it one of three ways. You can do it in the oven like I’m doing, or you can put the meatballs together and brown them in a Dutch oven in some oil, or you could make the meatballs very small and drop them in the soup, just raw, and they cook in that way. We’re going to use the oven method today. For a little bit lighter version, I’m using ground turkey. I have about a pound and a half of ground turkey. Now to the bowl, I’m going to add in one egg, 3/4 cup of panko bread crumbs. I want a half a cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I like to grate it on these microplane grers just because you get a very fine texture and it just blends in really well. Now, if you have some pregrated Parmesan cheese, that would work just fine. Even the cheese in the green container that we all use, that is perfect as well. Okay, this is very fine cheese. I’m actually going to put in 3/4 of a cup of that cheese. That’s just what I grated up. And it doesn’t look like too much, so that’s what I’m going to do. So, I’ve got a pound and a half of ground turkey, 3/4 cup of panko breadrumbs, and 34 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese. I also have some fresh parsley that I’m going to use. All right. So, that’s going to end up being about a half a cup of parsley. You don’t have to put that much. Okay. I’m going to put in about a four of a teaspoon of garlic powder and two teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Just going to do some fresh ground pepper. This would be to your liking. And about a four a teaspoon of sea salt. Okay. With clean hands, I’m going to get in there and just mix it all up. Now, I have a small scoop and I’m just going to scoop it onto parchment paper. Now, this makes a lot of meatballs. I’ve also seen it if you don’t want to scoop it out, you could also roll them into like a log and then cut them into very small pieces and roll them with your hands. I just think this way is quicker and you’ve got consistent size meatballs. I may need a second sheet. If you like your meatballs much smaller, probably better just to roll them by hand and make them as small as you like. Okay, that was 30 meatballs on the first sheet. Let’s see how many this makes. Now, instead of turkey, you could certainly do beef, pork, Italian sausage, or any combination of those. Okay, so that ended up with 56 meatballs. So, I’m going to put them into a 350° oven and bake them for about 30 minutes. And I’ll check them along the way. Okay. Next, we’re going to prepare our vegetables. Going to use a half of a yellow onion. You’ll just dice it to the size of dice that you like. Onion, celery, carrots are all going in together. So, I’ll put them all in the same bowl here. So, that was three ribs of celery. And I want the equivalent of about three small carrots as well. So, you want three about three garlic cloves or the equivalent of about a tablespoon of minced garlic. I’m going to turn my heat on medium. Then add in about a tablespoon of olive oil. And then I’ll add in all of my onion, celery, and carrots. I want to season with just a little bit of salt and pepper. Maybe about a/ quart teaspoon, not too much. Pepper to your liking. You just want to cook these until they’re soft. [Music] I’m going to pour in eight cups of chicken broth. And I’m going to turn it on high heat and bring it to a boil. forgot to put in my garlic, but I’m going to go ahead and just add it. It would have been better sauteed, but that’s the brakes. In the meantime, our meatballs have cooked. We’re just going to set them aside. Then we’ll add them to the soup in a few minutes. Okay, our mixture has come to a rolling boil. I’m going to add in one cup of uncooked orzo pasta and all of my meatballs. I’m going to turn that down to low and let it cook for about 10 minutes or more until the orzo is done. I’m going to add in the parmesan rind to cook as well. Gives it a little extra flavor. [Music] The orzo is done. Now the last step is to add my spinach. I’m adding in 5 oz of spinach and I’m going to let it cook down and then we will be done. Now, other things that you can use besides spinach, I think the original recipes call for escarole, and I believe you would add that earlier in the cooking process. The spinach is very easy, readily available, and you can add it at the last few minutes of cooking. There’s our cheese, the rind that’s cooked down a little bit. We’ll take that out in a few minutes. It’s a beautiful soup. I’m going to add in some cheese on top. some grated Parmesan cheese. Look at that. Okay, let’s do a taste test of this Italian wedding soup. This was really fun to make with all the different ingredients making the meatballs. Let’s see how it tastes. And you can’t go wrong with all these fresh ingredients. The meatballs are savory, delicious. All the vegetables are so fresh. The orzo is really tender. You can adjust the seasonings as you like in the end. I’m thinking this might cuz my chicken broth didn’t have any salt in it. So, I think I might adjust it a little bit with a salt, a little bit of salt and pepper on it. Otherwise, this is a beautiful light soup that you could have anytime. It’s not just a summer soup. Very, very good. Thank you so much for joining me on Hope’s Homemade Kitchen as we made Italian wedding soup. If you liked what you saw today, please consider subscribing to my channel if you haven’t done so already. Hit the bell for notifications of new videos and share with your friends. We’ll see you next time.