Italian Wedding Soup
This one-pot Italian Wedding Soup is loaded with homemade meatballs, pasta, veggies, and a rich flavorful broth. Ready in under one hour, this easy soup is delicious for any occasion!
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Large Pot
- 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.
Nutrition
Calories: 390kcal Carbohydrates: 29g Protein: 25g Fat: 19g Saturated Fat: 6g Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g Monounsaturated Fat: 9g Trans Fat: 0.1g Cholesterol: 95mg Sodium: 2248mg Potassium: 659mg Fiber: 3g Sugar: 4g Vitamin A: 6397IU Vitamin C: 15mg Calcium: 168mg Iron: 3mg