This iconic dish is named after the Italian phrase, “minestra maritata”, which means “married soup.” It is an ode to the harmonious combination of flavors and ingredients that resemble a happy marriage. In other words, it is perfectly balanced and irresistibly delicious – and easily one of my favorite Italian soup recipes.
A bowl of Italian wedding soup is a whole meal in itself. Its bold flavors and nourishing sustenance make it a comforting lunch or dinner option on a cold winter’s day. If you are looking for more hearty soup recipes, try my split pea soup recipe, homemade cabbage soup recipe, or easy black bean soup recipe.
What You Need to Make This Recipe
Ground Meat – the secret to the delicious flavor of the meatballs is a combination of ground beef and ground pork.
Bread crumbs – I recommend using fresh bread crumbs as they will soak in more flavor and give the meatballs the best texture. If you don’t have fresh, use panko or regular dry bread crumbs. Leaving out the bread crumbs altogether results in dense and dry meatballs.
Egg – an essential ingredient to help bind the meatballs and hold their shape in the soup.
Cheese – parmesan cheese adds a delicious creaminess to the meatballs and it is also the perfect soup topping. I recommend you freshly grate it from the block!
Broth – chicken broth adds a rich, full-bodied flavor to the soup. Alternatively, you can use chicken stock, beef broth, or vegetable stock.
Pasta – use a small pasta like orzo, acini de pepe, or ditalini to get the perfect bite in each spoonful.
Vegetables – onion, celery, carrots, and garlic make a fragrant base for the soup’s flavor. I also like to add in fresh spinach for some extra greens.
How to Make Italian Wedding Soup
1. In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, parsley, garlic, egg, salt, and pepper. Gently mix it all together with your hands until well combined.
2. Use a cookie scoop or large spoon to dish out balls of the mixture, shaping each into a 1-inch ball. Place the balls onto a baking sheet after shaping each one.
3. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs and cook them until they are browned on all sides, turning occasionally during cooking, for about 3 minutes. Transfer the meatballs to a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat the process with the remaining meatballs.
4. In the same pot over medium heat, add the olive oil, carrots, onion, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are tender, about 6 minutes.
5. Add the chicken broth, salt, and bell pepper and bring to a boil.
6. Stir in the pasta and browned meatballs. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot with a lid and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, for about 8 minutes.
7. Remove the lid and stir in the spinach and cook until the spinach wilts, for about 30 seconds.
8. Serve immediately, topping each bowl with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Pro Tips for Making This Recipe
- Be gentle when mixing the meatballs. Shape your hand like a claw and gently stir and fold the meatball ingredients together. If you mash or squeeze the mixture it too much, the meatballs can turn out hard and tough.
- Make tiny meatballs! You can make the meatballs smaller and form bite-sized mini meatballs instead by using a teaspoon and shaping them into ½-inch size balls.
- Sear the meatballs in the pot. Browning the meatballs before you fully cook them in the soup adds tons of extra flavor. The browning leaves behind a delicious caramelized residue on the bottom of the pot that enhances the flavor of the other ingredients that are cooked in the same pot.
- Add herbs. Try including fresh chives and sage in the meatballs for a more fragrant flavor. Additionally, you can add a dried bay leaf when cooking the soup to add more depth to the broth. Just remove it from the pot once you’re finished cooking the soup!
- Optional variations. If you want the beef and pork meatballs to have more of an Italian seasoning flavor, swap the ground pork for Italian sausage. Alternatively, you can make turkey or chicken meatballs by swapping the ground pork and beef with ground chicken or ground turkey.
Frequently Asked Questions
Allow leftover Italian wedding soup to cool completely before storing it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave until warmed through.
Let any leftover soup cool completely before placing it in the freezer in freezer-safe containers. If you’re making a batch specifically for the freezer, I recommend waiting to add the pasta and spinach until you thaw and reheat it. Store the base of the soup in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months, then thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Warm it on the stovetop until simmering, and add the pasta and spinach as directed in the recipe.
Enjoy a bowl of Italian wedding soup for dinner with plenty of grated parmesan cheese and freshly baked focaccia or garlic knots. Pair it with a caprese salad and a glass of light white wine like Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay.
Though baby spinach is the most classic pick for this soup, you can also substitute more hearty leafy greens such as chopped curly kale, lacinato kale, or escarole. If choosing one of these substitutions, I recommend adding the greens in halfway through the pasta’s cooking process, as these specific varieties will need more cooking time.
Yes, you most certainly can make this recipe in the slow cooker. Brown the meatballs and cook the vegetables in the olive oil on the stovetop as directed. Add the vegetables and meatballs to the pot of a slow cooker. Add the chicken broth, salt, and black pepper. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Add the pasta in the final 30 minutes of the cooking time. Cook on low for 30 minutes, or until the pasta is tender and cooked through. Stir in the chopped spinach and cook for 2 more minutes. Serve the soup hot with grated parmesan cheese.
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If you’ve tried this Italian Wedding Soup recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Italian Wedding Soup
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Plate
- Paper towels
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 8 ounces lean ground beef (227g)
- 8 ounces ground pork (227g)
- ½ cup fresh breadcrumbs (30g)
- ½ cup grated Parmesan (40g)
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
For the Soup:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 carrots chopped (190g)
- 1 yellow onion chopped (323g)
- 1 stalk celery chopped (88g)
- 8 cups chicken broth (1920 mL)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ cup small pasta (orzo, acini de pepe) (132g)
- 6 ounces fresh spinach leaves chopped (170g)
- Grated Parmesan for servings
Instructions
For the Meatballs:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the beef, pork, bread crumbs, Parmesan, parsley, garlic, egg, salt, and pepper. Gently mix together with your hands. Shape the mixture into 42 (1-inch) balls, placing them on a baking sheet after shaping each one.
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs and cook until browned on all sides, turning occasionally during cooking, about 3 minutes. Transfer the meatballs to a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat with the remaining meatballs.
For the Soup:
- In the same pot over medium-high heat, add the olive oil, carrots, onion, celery, and garlic. Cook stirring frequently, until the vegetables are tender, about 6 minutes.
- Add the broth, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and meatballs.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook stirring occasionally until the pasta is tender, about 8 minutes.
- Stir in the spinach and cook until the spinach wilts, about 30 seconds. Serve topped with grated Parmesan. Soup can be refrigerated for up to 1 week and frozen for up to 6 months.
Notes
- If you are short on time, you can use pre-made meatballs.
- When shaping the meatballs, try not to make them larger than an inch large, as you want them to be more bite-sized in the soup.
- To keep the meatballs uniform in size, use a small ice cream scoop or cookie scoop.
- Make a double batch of the meatballs and freeze half of them for a later day so you can quickly this soup when the craving hits!
- When browning the meatballs, don’t worry about cooking them all the way through. They’ll finish cooking later in the soup. When you brown the meatballs, make sure you do it in batches, so they’re not packed together tightly to ensure they’ll brown and not steam in the pot.
- When you brown the meatballs in the pot, they’ll leave behind something called fond. Fond is the caramelized bits left in the bottom of a pot. This is where you get a ton of flavor! When you add the onions, carrots, and celery, make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to get the flavor.
- When rolling the meatballs, do not squeeze them too tightly. You don’t want to pack the meatballs as they’ll become dense.
- To make shaping the meatballs easier, wet your hands! When you dampen your hands, the water creates a barrier on your skin, so the meat doesn’t stick, and you can roll them into a ball effortlessly.
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