This soup is named “Wedding Soup” because of the perfect marriage of flavors of the soup’s ingredients. Since I married into an Italian family, my knowledge of and love for Italian American cuisine has grown to be a significant influence on what I eat and what I cook.
A few words on ingredients:
* Using homemade stock is worth it (chicken stock recipe).
* DON’T use shelf-stable canned Parmesan. Really, I question if it’s even cheese. Even if you can’t find or find the delectable Parmigiano-Reggiano to be too big a splurge, use any kind of fresh Parmesan you can find that fits the budget and grate it yourself.
* Wash, wash, wash, your escarole. I recommend filling your clean kitchen sink with fresh, cold water and giving the individual leaves a few minutes to soak, giving them a swoosh around here and there. Since you’ll be putting the leaves right into the soup, you don’t have to worry about drying them, just give them a shake before roughly chopping them.
Making your own meatballs is also essential. I used to make my meatballs out of beef, but in more recent years have used a beef/pork mixture because it really does give added to the depth of flavor. When I make meatballs I usually double the recipe and cook them all, then use half for the dish and freeze 1/2 for another time (it’s lovely to have homemade meatballs in the freezer to throw into a pan of jarred sauce for a dinner on the fly or to have them at the ready for the next batch of wedding soup).
For the Meatballs
Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground beef of your choice (I like 90% lean)
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 c grated Parmesan
1/4 c grated shallot (or onion)
2 large garlic cloves, pressed or finely minced
1/4 c finely chopped fresh parsley (I never use the dried stuff because I think it’s quite a different taste)
1/2 c plain bread crumbs
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper (I like a lot of black pepper)
How I make it:
Mix the ingredients together thoroughly and roll into 1 inch balls. Place on a foil-covered baking pan (you don’t want to be scrubbing pans, right?) and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
For the Soup
Ingredients:
12 c homemade chicken stock
1 head washed escarole leaves, roughly chopped,
2 large eggs, beaten, with a small pinch of kosher salt & pepper
3/4 c small pasta (I used orzo, but any kind of pastini works well)
salt & pepper to taste
as much freshly grated Parmesan as you desire for garnish
Optional Ingredient:
parmesan rind
How I make it:
In your largest soup pot, heat your homemade stock, add escarole leaves and bring to a near boil.
Taste for seasoning and as salt and pepper as you like (remember the added Parmesan will add a lot of saltiness, so don’t go crazy here).
Drizzle in the beaten egg mixture and stir well. Add the pasta and the meatballs and simmer with a lid for 20-30 minutes.
If you have a parmesan rind (I stash them in the freezer in dated plastic sandwich baggies as I get them), gently set it atop the escarole and other ingredients, rind-side-down, to inhibit it from touching the bottom of the pot while it simmers. Adding the parmesan rind to the pot during simmering will give it the desired additional depth of flavor.
Most recipes for this soup add grated Parmesan as the soup cooks, however I don’t recommend this, otherwise you just have gloppy cheese that sticks (and burns) to the bottom of your pot. Add it at the end as garnish, once you have the soup in bowls, and you’ll avoid this mess. I like to have a chunk on the table with my micro plane grater and let people add their own.
Happy Eating!
