When my boyfriend had an unexpected dentist issue/visit the other day, I embarked on a quest to find a new soup recipe for dinner. My existing soup repertoire consisting of vegetarian chili, which isn't really soup, and one semi-failed attempt at potage parmentiere, perhaps this was a worthwhile endeavor regardless of the dental situation. As it was, the potage didn't seem filling enough on its own, and the chili had troubling spiciness issues. (It's also a bit time-consuming, or is if you do all the chopping by hand - something I always do with that recipe because the texture comes out much better that way. Sometime I should post that recipe, I guess.)
Seeking something simple yet filling, I somehow landed on the idea of Italian Wedding Soup. My first go-to recipe site is usually epicurious because its recipes come from both Gourmet and bon appetit, which I consider to be pretty reliable and kind of more upscale, which I like. Oddly, however, there were no IWS recipes to be found there. Next I checked My Recipes, which accesses recipes from Southern Living, Cooking Light, and Sunset, among others. Again no results that had anything to do with what I consider to be Italian Wedding Soup. Finally, I hit on a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis over at the Food Network site. Now, Giada doesn't look like she's ever eaten so much as one meatball, let alone a bowl-full of them, but who says being a good cook has to go along with being a big eater? Anyway, in her case I assume she inherited a trunk-full of recipes from a healthy-looking nonna-type who's not afraid of a little butter.
This recipe is much closer to the type of soup I had in mind: broth-based (chicken), with leafy greens, meatballs, and a little parmesan.
Ingredients - meatballs
1 small onion, grated
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large egg
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 slice fresh white bread, crust trimmed, bread torn into small pieces
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
8 ounces ground beef
8 ounces ground pork
Freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients - soup
12 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound curly endive, coarsely chopped (1 pound of escarole would be a good substitution)
2 large eggs
2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
To make the meatballs: Stir the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese, beef and pork. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a baking sheet.
To make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and curly endive and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the curly endive is tender, about 8 minutes. Whisk the eggs and cheese in a medium bowl to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin stands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.
Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Finish soup with parmesan cheese if desired.
A few things were unexpected. I hadn't heard of including egg, and I was expecting some sort of pasta. Also, whereas she uses curly endive for her veg, I'm more used to seeing something like kale or spinach. I guess because of these issues, I clicked over to the Comments page that accompanies the recipe. If you're willing to suffer through bad grammar and folksy parlance such as "Hun this is the BEST !!", there's a lot of useful information to be gleaned from the comments page.
For starters, many people seem to have substitued spinach for the curly endive. I had been willing to try for endive or - her suggested substitution - escarole; however, Whole Foods let me down on this one, so I too opted for spinach. Another main comment was using sweet Italian sausage in place of some or all of the recommended ground beef and pork. Again I was willing to follow the recipe here, but finding no ground pork at the store I was happy to know I would be safe using Italian sausage instead. Also regarding the meatballs, many people said they had first browned them before adding them to the broth. I didn't read back through the entire comment log, but I'm guessing that if people are doing this, it's because unbrowned meatballs either fell apart in the broth or were undercooked. Either way, I was happy to take the time to brown them. (In fact, Mike browned them while I got the broth going. He was also helpful rolling the meatballs, which I believe would otherwise be the most time-consuming part of the whole recipe.)
The one change - addition, I guess - I knew I wanted to make was adding some pasta. Not only does this increase the filling-ness factor, but it also jibes better with what I think of as classic IWS. Several commenters recommended a pasta called acini de pepe. I had to wikipedia the name to determine that it was a type of pasta (as opposed to some type of Italian pepper?), but it's apparently a very small, pepperc0rn-size pasta that's often used in soups. Many other people, however, had used orzo, with which I was familiar. I was all set to go with the acini de pepe but, not finding it at the store, went with the orzo. Given the opportunity I think I'd prefer the acini etc., as its texture would be kind of fun in the soup and it somehow feels more Italian. One of the downsides of adding something extra to a recipe is you don't know exactly when and how to do it. One commenter said she'd used a cup of orzo so, making a half-recipe, I put in a half-cup right after the broth came to a boil and pretty much immediately added the meatballs and spinach. I don't know if this was really a mistake or not. It's definitely true that the orzo was not fully cooked within the 8 minute cooking time for the meatballs and spinach; however, I don't think the meatballs and spinach were particularly hurt by hanging out another 5 minutes waiting for the orzo to cook. I suppose, to do it over again, I could cook the pasta separately and add it at the end, but that creates another pan to clean (you're already adding one for browning the meatballs) and another burner to focus on. I think instead I would let the pasta cook a bit longer next time before adding the rest of the ingredients, although even here you have to be careful, because you certainly don't want to come out with mushy pasta.
As for the egg, I think I could take it or leave it. We happened to have eggs at home, so I didn't mind adding them, but I don't know that I'd buy a carton of eggs purely for their inclusion in the soup.
But, to get to the important thing, this soup was absolutely delicious and also very easy and relatively quick to make! We had enough for leftovers the next day, and it was equally good, if not better. To coin a phrase, Hun this is the best! I definitely plan to make this recipe a few more times while the weather stays chilly up here. However, my modified take on the recipe will be as follows:
Ingredients - meatballs
1 small onion, grated
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large egg
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 slice fresh white bread, crust trimmed, bread torn into small pieces
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
8 ounces ground beef
8 ounces ground sweet Italian sausage
Freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients - soup
12 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs (optional)
2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup orzo, acini de pepe, or other small pasta
Directions
To make the meatballs: Stir the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese, beef and Italian sausage. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs.
Heat 2 T oil in a large skillet. Add 2-3 T butter. When fat has melted to coat the pan, add meatballs to pan in a single layer (do half at a time if necessary). Cook until lightly browned, turning as necessary. Remove from pan and set aside.
To make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook one or two minutes, depending on recommended cooking time. Add the meatballs and spinach and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, the spinach is tender, and the pasta is cooked to desired consistency, about 8 minutes. Whisk the eggs (if desired) and cheese in a medium bowl to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin stands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Finish soup with parmesan cheese if desired.
No comments:
Post a Comment