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- I recently made Ina Garten's Italian wedding soup.
- It features chicken meatballs, veggies, and her delicious broth.
- The soup is light and bright but still comforting. It's perfect for a rainy spring day.
Spring doesn't guarantee sunshine, and sometimes, you still need a delicious soup to get you through the gloomy days.
When I spotted the recipe for Ina Garten's Italian wedding soup, I had a feeling it'd be the perfect fit.
I've been making my way through Garten's soups over the last few months, so I was excited to see how this recipe stacked up.
Let's get cooking!
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To make the meatballs for Garten's soup, you'll need:
¾ pound of ground chicken
½ pound of chicken sausage, casings removed
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons of minced garlic (2 cloves)
⅔ cup of fresh white breadcrumbs
¼ cup of freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese
¼ cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
For the soup, you'll need:
10 cups of chicken stock, homemade recommended
3 carrots (¼-inch-diced)
2 celery stalks (¼-inch-diced)
1 cup of small pasta, such as tubettini or stars
1 cup of minced yellow onion
½ cup of dry white wine
¼ cup of minced fresh dill
2 tablespoons of good olive oil
12 ounces of baby spinach, washed and trimmed
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I preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then placed my ground chicken and sausage in a bowl with the breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, milk, and egg, plus the pecorino and Parmesan cheeses.
I should confess that I didn't use fresh breadcrumbs for this recipe. As Garten says, "Store-bought is fine!" But next time around, I'll try it with fresh breadcrumbs instead to see if it helps make the meatballs taste a bit lighter.
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Per the recipe, I added one teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. Then, I gently combined everything with a fork.
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Garten recommends using a teaspoon to help make meatballs that measure around 1-inch to 1 ¼-inch and placing them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
"You should have about 40 meatballs," she writes in the recipe. "They don't have to be perfectly round."
I had made my meatballs a bit bigger and found them harder to eat while sipping on the soup, so I'd recommend sticking to Garten's preferred measurements.
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First, I prepped all my veggies, dicing the carrots and celery and mincing the onion.
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Garten says to sauté the onions, carrots, and celery together for about five to six minutes, stirring occasionally, until they've softened.
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In the episode of "Barefoot Contessa" where she makes this recipe, Garten says homemade chicken stock "makes all the difference in the world" — and I completely agree.
I made Garten's homemade chicken stock for the first time this winter, and I'll honestly never go back to store-bought. I used it to make her ravioli en brodo and chicken pot pie soups, and they are among the best "Barefoot Contessa" recipes I've ever made (and I've made a lot).
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The meatballs were lightly browned and cooked through, so I took my sheet pan out of the oven and set it aside.
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Garten says to cook your pasta in the simmering broth for six to eight minutes, until the noodles are tender.
I couldn't find tubettini or stars pasta at the grocery store, so I tried casarecce instead. Since the noodles are a bit bigger, they didn't have the same effect in the soup and often slipped off the spoon. I'd stick to a smaller substitute so you can get more noodles in each sip.
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I let them simmer in the soup for one minute, per Garten's instructions. I also added some salt and pepper during this step.
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Garten knows she's asking you to add quite a bit of spinach.
"You're not going to believe how much it is, but it's going to cook down in a second," she says in the episode of "Barefoot Contessa."
I admit I didn't add the full amount of spinach — sorry, Ina! But I allowed the greens to cook for one minute in the soup until they had just begun to wilt.
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As with her other soups I've tried this year, Garten's recipe shines thanks to her homemade chicken stock. It's comforting and rich without tasting too heavy, and the chicken meatballs are a delicious touch that makes the soup a tad hearty — especially with the extra Parmesan cheese Garten recommends you grate on top of the broth. The soup has a lovely depth of flavor, and the veggies added some great color and texture.
While I wouldn't rank Garten's Italian wedding soup above the chicken pot pie soup or ravioli en brodo, I think this dish is great when you're craving something soothing that still tastes light — perfect for a rainy spring night.
