Italian Wedding Soup

 

It’s technically ‘winter’ and because of this,  I had been wanting to make another soup for some time. I don’t know why I forget that soup is amazing but I do. Around the time I was pondering this, I came across an amazing soup recipe in the February issue of Food & Wine. Fancy that.

I think what attracted me to this Italian Wedding Soup recipe is both the fact that I have always wanted to make it and also that it looked so easy. I immediately adjusted the recipe to my tastes, raided the pantry and got to work.

If you have homemade stock, go ahead and use it but if you need to go the store bought route, this is the stuff. its rich and flavorful, I won’t use anything else.

Here is our orzo, which is a rice shaped pasta. Delicious.

The meat ball mix – ground pork, cheese, breadcrumbs, etc. I added scallions because I like onions and I like color. I think that they really add to the whole soup. You can leave them out if you want.

Here are the pork balls right before I dropped them into the soup.

Here is the soup right after the kale is added in. The original recipe calls for spinach but I prefer kale.

Ta-da! It was even better the second day, too bad it was 75 degrees outside.

much love!
jess

PRINTRECIPE

Italian Wedding Soup
2 quarts chicken stock, homemade preferable
5 cups of water
2 large carrot, coins
2 celery ribs, sliced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup orzo
1 pound ground pork
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
5 scallions, finely sliced on the bias
5 large kale leaves, stems removed and torn into small pieces
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

In a large pot, bring the chicken stock and water to a boil with the carrot, celery and 4 cloves of minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Add the orzo and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes.

In a bowl, knead the pork with the 1/2 cup of cheese, the bread crumbs, sliced scallions, 2 cloves of minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Form the mixture into 1-inch balls.

Drop the balls into the boiling soup and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the kale and chickpeas and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, 5 minutes longer.

Serve with fresh grated cheese on top.
ENDPRINTRECIPE

0