Italian Wedding Soup

Homemade Meatballs • Fresh Spinach • Italian Music • Clean The Plate

Ingredients

• 1 big pot of homegrown spinach
• 1 pound of ground beef, pork, and/or veal
• Breadcrumbs
• 4 cloves of garlic (2 for meatballs and 2 for soup)
• Fresh Parsley
• Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 1 egg
• Carrots
• Onion
• Celery
• 8 cups Chicken Stock
• Acini de Pepe Pasta
• Red chili flakes
• Dash of dried thyme
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Notes

• You may notice in the scene where I eat at the end, the soup looks less vibrant than when it was fresh out of the pot. This is because I filmed the scene of me eating a few months after I originally cooked the soup. I did eat some of the soup when it was freshly made but I also froze a large amount of it. Then for the ending scene of this episode I thawed out the soup and ate it in front of my Hindu Kush plant to celebrate the approaching autumn harvest. Italian Wedding Soup is usually eaten at Italian American family functions and celebrations, hence the name.

Method

1
First make the meatballs. Chop the garlic, chop the parsley, beat the egg, grate the cheese.
2
Now in a bowl mix together the ground meat, breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic, egg, plus a little salt and pepper. Keep in mind we will also be using some garlic and parsley in the soup.
3
Mix everything together and then start shaping into little balls. For Italian Wedding Soup the meatballs should be a bit on the smaller side, but my meatballs always seem to be a little bigger than everybody else's. Go figure.
4
Fry up the meatballs in some oil. I use a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil. Olive oil on its own has a rather low smoke point so I mix it, but do like some olive oil in there for the flavor it adds to the meatballs. You can also bake the meatballs if you wish, but I fry mine.
5
After we finish the meatballs now we start making the soup. Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery.
6
If you need to chop more garlic and parsley or grate more cheese, do that too.
7
Use some of the grease from frying the meatballs to start sauteeing the carrots, onions, and celery in a soup pot.
8
After a couple of minutes, throw in the garlic and chili flakes.
9
Then a couple minutes after that, add in the chicken stock. Do not wait for the vegetables to get soggy, they will cook more in the stock so they should only be half cooked when we add the stock.
10
Add the dried thyme and sea salt. Chicken stock already has alot of salt in it so Nonna Masterbone would say she doesn't add salt to her soups. I add a little to mine though, do as you wish.
11
Bring a separate pot of water to boil so we may cook the pasta.
12
When the soup begins boiling, lower the heat so we can gently simmer it.
13
When you throw the pasta into the boiling water, add the meatballs and fresh parsley to the soup.
14
A minute or so before the pasta is done, throw in the spinach. Only cook for about a minute before you take the pot off the heat.
15
I suggest storing extra pasta separately and advise against adding the pasta directly to the soup pot. That makes the pasta get soggy and gross.
16
First put some pasta into a bowl then ladle the soup on top of it.
17
Finish her off with some freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.
18
Now make sure you Clean The Plate!