Italian Wedding Soup

I utilized to be intimidated to straighten Italian Party Soup. I eff no Romance ancestry and my mom never made it growing up, so for some conclude it seemed promiscuous to disorder up. But I'm here to verify you it is so loose to get and people this elemental recipe grouping mightiness opine it was passed perfect from an Italian Grandparent.

Play the meatballs bittie. This is soup, not a big dish of pasta.
Use invigorated herbs. They real add major variety.
Adopt with the combination of the two meats.
Use strong bread crumbs. Again we're building advisable variety. The texture of dry would confound this direction off anyway.
Don't be insufficient with the flavoring. This is an European soup. I same to use 4 cloves here.
Transport on the parm! The sliced parmesan present truly kudos the soup nicely. It may not be pictured as a culmination decorate, but don't leaving it off!

I same this unexceeded with acini de pepe. Acini de pepe are righteous those tiny small shape food that can unremarkably be constitute by the separate pastas at the foodstuff stock. If you can't conceive them orzo module employ here as considerably.
I favour the sapidity of the spinach mortal here but chou, endive or escarole are other greens commonly victimized in European Ceremonial Soup and they would play amercement in this direction.

Ingredients

• Meatballs
• 8 oz lean ground beef
• 8 oz ground pork
• 1/2 cup fresh hearty white bread crumbs*
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 1/2 tsp minced fresh oregano
• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan
• 1 large egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Soup
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/4 cups 1/4-inch diced carrots
• 1 1/4 cups diced yellow onion
• 3/4 cup 1/4-inch diced celery
• 4 cloves garlic , minced (1 1/2 Tbsp)
• 5 (14.5 oz) cans low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup dry acini de pepe or orzo pasta**
• 6 oz fresh spinach , chopped
• Finely shredded parmesan , for serving

Instructions

• For the meatballs:
• Add beef and pork to a large mixing bowl. Add in bread crumbs, parsley, oregano, parmesan, egg, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Gently toss and break up mixture with hands to evenly coat and distribute. Shape mixture into very small meatballs, about 3/4 inch to 1 inch and transfer to a large plate.
• Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs and cook until browned, turning occasionally (to brown on 2 or 3 sides), about 4 minutes total. Transfer meatballs to a plate lined with paper towels while leaving oil in skillet. Repeat process with remaining meatballs (note that meatballs won't be cooked through at this point, they'll continue to cook through in the soup).
• For the soup:
• While meatballs are browning, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onions and celery and saute until veggies have softened about 6 - 8 minutes, add garlic and saute 1 minute longer. Pour in chicken broth, season soup with salt and pepper to taste and bring mixture to a boil. Add in pasta and meatballs, reduce heat to light boil (about medium or medium-low). Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until pasta is tender and meatballs have cooked through, about 10 minutes, while adding in spinach during the last minute of cooking. Serve warm, sprinkle each serving with parmesan cheese.
• *I recommend using bread such as a La Brea french loaf. Just grind up a slice in a food processor to find crumbs. Save the remaining bread for serving (slathered with butter of course) or freeze for another later use.
• **If you like a more brothier soup you can reduce pasta to 3/4 cup. Note that as the soup sits the pasta will absorb more broth so you can add more broth to thin the soup as desired.

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