Italian Wedding Soup
Mini meatballs, acini di pepe, escarole and parmesan broth.
Maui's an app that plans a whole week of dinners like this one. See how it works ↓
Bake the meatballs instead of poaching them straight into broth - they hold shape, brown for flavor, and don't turn the broth cloudy. Cleaner bowl, deeper meatball taste.
Ingredients
Everything below makes 6 servings.
- ¾ lbground beef (80/20)
- ½ lbground pork
- ½ cuppanko breadcrumbs
- 1large egglightly beaten
- ½ cupgrated parmesandivided - 1/4 cup in meatballs, 1/4 cup for serving
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 1 mediumyellow onionsmall dice
- 2 mediumcarrotssmall dice
- 2 stalkscelerysmall dice
- 4garlic clovesminced
- 8 cupschicken stock
- ¾ cupacini di pepe pasta
- 4 cupsescarolechopped
- ½lemonjuiced, to finish
- 2 tspkosher salt
- ½ tspblack pepper
In the app these rescale to however many people you're feeding.
Nutrition
Per serving, as written.
- 380calories
- 24gprotein
- 28gcarbs
- 18gfat
Swaps move these numbers. A different protein or base changes them.
Instructions
Knife work first, then the stove. Nothing below asks you to chop while something burns.
- Preheat oven to 400F for baking the meatballs.
- Small-dice onion, carrot, celery. Mince garlic.
- Chop escarole into rough 1-inch ribbons.
- In a bowl: mix beef and pork and panko and egg and ¼ cup parm and 1 garlic clove minced and 1 tsp salt and pepper.
Roll and bake meatballs
Roll the meat mix into mini meatballs (about 1 tsp each - you want them spoon-sized, around 40 total). Place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake at 400F for 12-14 min until cooked through and lightly browned.
14 min · hands offSoffritto
While meatballs bake: heat olive oil in the pot over medium. Add onion, carrot, celery and salt. Cook 8 min until softened. Add remaining garlic, cook 1 min.
8 min · hands onBuild broth and pasta
Pour in chicken stock and remaining salt. Bring to a boil. Add acini di pepe, cook 7-8 min until just shy of done.
8 min · hands offDrop meatballs and greens
Slide the baked meatballs into the soup. Add the escarole. Simmer 3-4 min until escarole wilts. Squeeze in lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt.
4 min · hands onServe
Ladle into bowls. Top with remaining grated parmesan.
1 min · hands onMake it yours
Every swap here is one Maui already knows how to make, including what it does to the timing.
Use 1.25 lb ground beef total, skip the pork; meatballs hold fine.
Use 1.25 lb ground chicken; add 1 extra tbsp olive oil to the mix for moisture.
Toss romaine with caesar dressing while soup simmers. Adds about 10 minutes.
Sub 3 tbsp nutritional yeast for the parm in meatballs and on top.
What keeps
Soup and meatballs keep 4 days fridge or 2 months frozen - broth deepens overnight. Store pasta separately if making ahead, or it bloats.
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