Italian Wedding Soup



The whole gang!

Wedding season is upon us.  From now until the late fall, we will have many weddings, wedding showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties etc. etc. etc.  In fact, this Friday, our stepsister Jessica gets married!!  We are all so excited to not only see her marry her college sweetheart, Matt, but also to be reunited with each other!  Katie, Jen and I will all be together at last!  The excitement is overwhelming to say the least. 

In honor of the upcoming nuptials, I thought we would cook some homemade Italian Wedding Soup.  Being about 0% Italian, we are going to emphasize the wedding aspect of this recipe.

Here's to wedding season!

Joanne

Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients

Meatballs:

• 1 small onion, grated
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 slice fresh white bread, crust trimmed, bread torn into small pieces
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 8 ounces ground beef
• 8 ounces ground pork
• Freshly ground black pepper

Soup:

• 12 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 pound curly endive, coarsely chopped (1 pound of escarole would be a good substitution)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

To make the meatballs: Stir the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese, beef and pork. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a baking sheet.

To make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and curly endive and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the curly endive is tender, about 8 minutes. Whisk the eggs and cheese in a medium bowl to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin stands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Finish soup with parmesan cheese if desired.