Once the weather gets cooler, I love making soup! One of my favorites is Italian Wedding soup. I had never had it until about 2 years ago, which I always thought was funny since I’m 100% Italian. When I first made it I followed Ina Garten’s recipe. Now I use hers more of a guide and do my own thing. I personally didn’t like the sausage taste in my meatballs, and I found all of the grated cheese too overpowering. I also use ground turkey instead of chicken. Please keep in mind I almost always omit garlic from my recipes as I suffer from acid reflux, however I know it would taste amazing in these meatballs!
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
1 lb organic ground turkey, breast only or chicken
1 organic large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup organic bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan (omitted this tonight), plus extra for serving
1/2 tsp chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp thyme
Kosher salt and black pepper
For the soup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 organic carrots, peeled and sliced
2 organic celery stalks, sliced
10 cups chicken broth (I used Trader Joe’s organic broth)
1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars (I used alphabet)
6 oz organic baby spinach, washed and trimmed
6 oz organc kale, washed with stems removed
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
For the meatballs, place the ground turkey, bread crumbs, basil, thyme, parmesan, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine. Form about 1-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan that is lightly sprayed with cooking spray. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don’t have to be perfectly round.) I always use my leave in thermometer (I LOVE it!), and cooked these until they were 165°F internally, which took about 12 minutes. Now, boil water for your pasta.
In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and kale, and bring to a boil. Once your pasta water has boiled, start to cook your pasta.
Taste the soup for salt and pepper. Add the meatballs and fresh spinach, and cook for 1 minute until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with grated parmesan if desired.
Very simple and took me exactly 1 hour from start to finish.