Italian Wedding Soup is a classic dish that can be enjoyed beyond weddings. The key to making a memorable soup is to use fresh ingredients, create flavorful meatballs, and add a zesty lemon. Combining different types of ground meat and adding breadcrumbs, eggs, and grated cheese to the meatballs intensifies the flavors. Sautéed garlic and onion add richness to the broth, while greens like escarole or kale provide nutrition. Adding a combination of grated cheese and beaten eggs to the broth creates long yellow strands that cling to the greens. Variations of the soup include adding ground sausage, vegetables, and pasta shapes.
Even the name, Italian Wedding Soup, is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. Leave it to romantic Italians to concoct a soup solely for the celebration of love. While the idea, a ready assumption given the soup’s name, is a good one, actually, Italian wedding soup is found not just at weddings but here, there, and everywhere else. Making a memorable wedding soup is all about using the freshest ingredients, creating memorable meatballs, and remembering that a little zesty lemon brings a bright drop of sunshine to the bowl.
While it’s certainly possible to create tiny wedding soup patties using just one type of ground beef — whether it’s beef, pork, or chicken — a combination of two or more intensifies the flavors. The breadcrumbs bind the patties and the beaten raw eggs add moisture and bind further. Most cooks add some hard grated cheese like Romano or Parmesan. The more lightly the patties are handled as the ingredients are blended, the more tender the resulting little treats will be.
The wise cook knows that while meatballs can be added directly to broth for cooking, they are much tastier after a brief visit to a pan where they are lightly browned. While the meatballs are browned, a pot of chicken stock should simmer. The sautéed minced garlic and onion added the rich flavor to the broth. A necessary ingredient in Italian wedding soup is greens, though whether escarole, kale, spinach, or another green ends up on the plate depends largely on what’s available.
The final step in creating a celebratory wedding soup involves some eggs beaten along with some grated cheese. Most cooks like to create a combination of cheeses, although they should be of the grated type like pecorino and romano. When this combination is flavored into broth and stirred, it forms into long yellow strands that cling beautifully to the greens.
As with all wonderfully simple recipes, dozens of variations of the Italian wedding soup are easy to find. Some create a spicier version by adding ground sausage to the meatballs. Others like to add extra flavor and nutrition in the form of celery, carrots and sweet peppers. A splash of white wine brings out the Italian in this soup, and the addition of a few pasta stars or other little shapes means kids will fall in love with what’s swimming in their bowls next to the tiny meatballs and probably won’t even notice the vegetables.
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