Italian Wedding Soup

This delicious soup comes from a recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated Magazine, Soups and Stews, 2014 Edition. We served it with a garnish of finely grated parmesan cheese and fresh ricotta pastries for dessert. The pasta noodles, meatballs, and pastries were a big hit with our toddler boys. (Serves 6-8)

Ingredients

Broth*
1  Onion, chopped
2  Celery stalks, chopped roughly
2  Carrots, chopped roughly
1  Garlic Bulb, broken into unpeeled cloves
4oz  Pork, ground
4oz  Beef, ground, organic
2  Bay leaf 
1/2cup Dry White Wine or Sherry
1tbsp Worcestershire sauce 
8 cups Chicken Broth
5 Peppercorns, whole
1 cup water 



Meatballs
1 slice Bread, a good sized slice torn into small pieces
5tbsp Heavy cream
1/4c Parmesan cheese, grated
4tsp Onion, finely grated
1 Garlic clove, grated
Salt
Pepper
6oz Pork, ground (I used TJ's Sicilian sausages)
1tsp Baking Powder
6oz Beef, ground, 80% lean
2tsp Oregano, minced

1cup Pasta
2 Carrots sliced thinly
1 Leek cut into thin rings
10oz Kale, cut into 1/2in pieces

 

Preparation

1. In a heavy bottom stock pot, cook onion, celery, carrot, pork and beef cook for a bout 5 minutes over medium heat until meat is brown. Pour in wine and worcestershire sauce, cook a little and de-glaze pan for one minute. Add in broth and water and cook just until a boil begins. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. While simmering, the meatballs and veggies can be prepared. After 30 minutes, strain the broth and place back in dutch oven.

2. For the meatballs: while broth is simmering, mash together bread, cream, parmesan, onion, and garlic just until a paste, set aside. In a mixer with a paddle, or a food processor with a dough attachment, beat pork, baking powder, and 1/2tsp salt for 1-2 minutes, until smooth and pale. Add ground beef, oregano, and the bread mixture and mix for 1-2 minutes until incorporated. With moistened hands, form heaping teaspoons of meatball mixture into round balls. 

3. Saute the leeks and carrots in a fry pan until soft and add to the broth. Bring the broth to a simmer and add pasta and kale and simmer for 5 minutes. Add meatballs to the broth and cook for another 3-5 minutes until the pasta and meatballs are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and serve with some finely grated parmesan.

Notes: We will eat this soup over two nights, so I cook the pasta separate and add it in on the night it is served so that the pasta isn't too soft, or the soup too starchy, when we have it on another night.

* This recipe calls for plain old chicken stock and thus needs to be flavored. If you already add celery, carrots, garlic, etc. while you make your own stock, you can skip this major step to flavor the broth! Making a very delicious Italian Wedding Soup becomes a snap if you already have a fantastic broth to work with.