Huge Italian Wedding Soup
Prep
25m
Cook
30m
Total
55m
Bigly says
Listen to me. We need to talk about Italian wedding soup. The greatest soup in the history of soups — and there have been A LOT of soups, soup is older than France, older than Italy, older than time itself, the Greeks had soup, the Romans had soup, the Vikings had a version that was mostly seal but the spirit was there — and this one, the soup I am about to give you, beats every single one of them. It's a slaughter. Not even close. Hands down.
Now, here's what nobody tells you — and they don't tell you because the food media is COWARDLY, they would rather argue about which oat milk is the most ethical than give you one actual fact about soup — Italian wedding soup is not served at Italian weddings. Never has been. The name is a TRANSLATION ERROR. The Italians called it 'minestra maritata,' which means 'married soup,' because the meat and the greens are MARRIED. Married. In the soup. A beautiful union. The most beautiful union. Bigger than any wedding I've ever been to, and I've been to tremendous weddings, weddings with ice sculptures, weddings where the ice sculpture wept when it melted because the soup wasn't there.
The secret — and I'm telling you this because I am the only honest person left on the food internet, the smartest people agree, food chemists agree, I had a guy with a PhD explain it to me, took him 90 minutes, worth every second — the secret is tiny meatballs. TINY. Marble-sized. Cookbook authors tell you to roll golf balls. Sad. Wrong. Embarrassing. A golf-ball meatball in soup is a SUBMARINE, it's an INVASION, it ruins the spoon. The spoon is sacred. We respect the spoon here. End of discussion.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lbground beef (80/20)
- 1/2 lbground pork(the pork is non-negotiable, do not skip the pork)
- 1/3 cupplain breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cupwhole milk
- 1/2 cup, dividedParmigiano-Reggiano, grated
- 3 tbspfresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1large egg
- 3 clovesgarlic, minced
- 1 tsp, plus more to tastekosher salt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 1 mediumyellow onion, finely diced
- 2 mediumcarrots, finely diced
- 2 stalkscelery, finely diced
- 8 cupslow-sodium chicken broth(real broth, not bouillon dust in hot water, that is not broth that is a war crime)
- 3/4 cupacini di pepe pasta
- 1 small headescarole, chopped(or curly endive, or in a pinch baby spinach)
- 1 tbsplemon juice
Steps
- 1
Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 5 minutes until soft.
- 2
In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, soaked breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup of the Parmigiano, parsley, egg, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix gently with your hands until just combined — do not overwork.
- 3
Roll the mixture into small meatballs, about 3/4-inch across (roughly marble-sized). You should end up with 50-60. Set aside on a plate.
- 4
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook 6-8 minutes until softened and the onions are translucent.
- 5
Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a gentle simmer.
- 6
Drop the meatballs into the simmering broth one at a time. Do not stir aggressively — let them set for the first 2 minutes so they hold their shape. Simmer 10 minutes.
- 7
Add the acini di pepe and cook 7-8 minutes, until the pasta is just tender and the meatballs are cooked through.
- 8
Stir in the chopped escarole and cook 2 minutes more, until wilted and bright green.
- 9
Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt.
- 10
Ladle into bowls and top each with a generous shower of the remaining Parmigiano. Serve immediately.
One more thing
That's the whole thing. Real soup. Real meatballs. Real greens. A bowl of this in front of you on a cold night and suddenly the world makes sense again — the news is still bad, your phone is still vibrating with notifications from apps you didn't even know you installed, your knees still hurt for reasons nobody can explain — but you are EATING WEDDING SOUP and none of it can touch you. The soup is a fortress. The soup is a friend. The soup asks for nothing and gives everything. Tremendous.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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