Recipe - Italian Wedding Soup

Last week Casper and I decided we needed to make Italian Wedding Soup. I found a recipe that sounded good, tweaked it a bit, and we made the most delicious soup ever! 

 

Our meatballs

Veggies



Finished product!



 I used the recipe from Kitchen Confidante but tweaked it a little. Below is my version.

Italian Wedding Soup

Meatballs:
1 small onion, grated
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large egg
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
16 ounces ground beef (you can also use a combination of beef and pork, but I try to avoid pork when Ilhana will be eating with us)
Freshly ground black pepper

Soup:
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 cup minced yellow onion
1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup diced celery (3 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
10 cups chicken stock
1 cup small pasta (I used ditalini, but orzo would work too)
8-12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed
a few sprigs of fresh dill, chopped
juice from half of a lemon
salt and pepper, to taste

In a medium bowl, combine onion, parsley, egg, garlic, salt, and bread crumbs together. Add the parmesan cheese, ground meat, and pepper and combine. Use a heaping tablespoon size portion to make the meatballs. Set on an ungreased basking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until done.

In a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, carrots and celery and saute until the onion is transparent, about 7 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and meatballs, return to a boil, and cook until the pasta is cooked al dente. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning to your liking with salt and pepper. Add the spinach and dill and simmer for a couple of minutes more, until the spinach is just wilted but still a vibrant green. Stir in lemon juice.

Ladle into bowls and serve with a little extra grated Parmesan cheese.