This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please visit the disclosures and privacy policy page.
Dec 21, 2019

Italian Wedding Soup

This Italian Wedding Soup is filled with lots of delicious meatballs, spinach, veggies, and pasta.

Italian Wedding Soup





This Italian wedding soup is pretty incredible. The soup begins with meatballs made with ground chicken, spicy sausage, and lots of Pecorino Romano and Parmesan cheese.

This soup is loaded with lots of fresh spinach. In fact, when you add the spinach, you'll worry that there is so much that there is no way it will all fit into this soup. No worries! This recipe works!

P.S. If you love meatball soups, be sure to check out this shrimp and pork meatball wonton noodle soup and this Mexican meatball soup.


Italian Wedding Soup in a serving bowl




How to Make Italian Wedding Soup:


One of my favorite things about this soup is that the meatballs are so easy to make. For one thing, they are baked in the oven.

You don't have to worry about browning the meatballs in a skillet, making them so easy to prepare.

Italian Wedding Soup meatballs after baking



Just form the meat balls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake them for 30 minutes until cooked through and lightly browned.

This soup, filled with these baked meatballs, will be totally delicious.


Italian Wedding Soup meatballs being formed




How to Make Homemade Chicken or Turkey Stock: 


For the stock, I made homemade turkey stock from the carcass of our leftover Thanksgiving turkey. You can also use carcasses from home roasted or store-bought rotisserie chickens to make the broth.

To make the stock, add the carcasses to a large stock pot, cover them with water, and add quartered unpeeled onions, carrots, celery stalks, sprigs of parsley, thyme sprigs, dill, a head of garlic sliced in half, salt and peppercorns.

Simmer for four hours and then strain the stock through a cheesecloth lined strainer and refrigerate.
After the stock has been refrigerated, skim off the excess fat from the top.

The feedback from my taste testers was that the broth for this soup was amazing.


Italian Wedding Soup with meatballs and pasta.




What are the origins of Italian Wedding Soup? 


Italian wedding soup has roots in minestra maritata, which loosely translated to "wedded broths." This soup has nothing to do with weddings nor is it served at weddings. Instead, the name refers to the marriage of flavors in the simmering soup.

However, the soup may have roots in southern Italy, as do most Italian American dishes.

Italian wedding soup recipe variations:


I used ground chicken mixed with spicy turkey sausage. You can also use ground pork sausage as well as ground turkey.

If you don't want make your own stock, you can substitute supermarket chicken stock.

This month the Soup Saturday group, hosted by Culinary Adventures with Camilla, is posting celebration soups. Check out everyone's soups!


Italian Wedding Soup with Homemade Broth: 


If you make this Italian Wedding Soup, let me know how you made it. I totally loved it with the homemade turkey broth.

This Italian Wedding Soup is filled with lots of delicious meatballs, spinach, veggies, and pasta.



Italian Wedding Soup Recipe


Italian Wedding Soup Recipe
Yield: 8 servings
Author:
This Italian Wedding Soup is filled with lots of delicious meatballs, spinach, veggies, and pasta.

ingredients:

For the meatballs
  • 1 pound ground chicken
  • 3/4 pounds spicy chicken or turkey sausage, casings removed
  • 1 cup fresh white bread crumbs
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 5 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese
  • 5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
  • 4 tablespoons milk
  • 1 extra large egg, lightly beaten
  • Salt and pepper
For the soup
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup minced yellow onion
  • 1 cup diced (1/4 inch dice) carrots (about 3 carrots)
  • 1/2 cup diced celery (2 stalks)
  • 10 cups chicken or turkey stock
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup orzo or other small pasta
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh dill
  • 12 ounced baby spinach

instructions:

How to cook Italian Wedding Soup Recipe

  1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
  2. Gently mix the meatball ingredients in a bowl with a fork.
  3. Form the mixture into 1 inch balls and place them onto a parchment lined baking sheet. 
  4. Bake the meatballs for 30 minutes, until lightly browned. Set aside. 
  5. Heat the olive oil over medium low heat in a large soup pot and add the onion, carrots, and celery and sauté until softened, about 6 minutes. 
  6. Add the stock and wine and bring to a boil. 
  7. Add the pasta and simmer for about 6 minutes. 
  8. Add the fresh dill and the baked meatballs and simmer for one minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
  9. Add all of the fresh spinach and and simmer for about one minute, until the spinach is just wilted. 
  10. Serve the soup topped with extra grated Parmesan cheese. 
soup, Italian wedding soup, chicken, sausage
soup
American, Italian

Did you make this recipe?
Tag @KarensKitchenStories on instagram and hashtag it #KarensKitchenStories
Created using The Recipes Generator

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Would you like to comment?

  1. Believe it or not, I have never made this soup. I can't imagine why not now! I will. Thanks for joining me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This was my first time! Thanks for the great event.

      Delete
  2. Yum! One of my favorite soups! It's the perfect combination of meat, pasta, and veggies!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I definitely am putting this on my "to try soon" list - it looks wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love Italian Wedding Soup Karen. Great choice for this month's theme.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I think this was one of my all time favorite soups I've made for this group.

      Delete
  5. I love this baked meatball soup, going to try this soon.

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear from you! If you comment anonymously, be sure to leave your name in your comment.