Barefoot Contessa's Italian Wedding Soup Modified

 

A friend of mine recently underwent a double mastectomy.  Several of us got together to take meals to she and her husband.  I immediately thought of this heartwarming soup.  I'm not a fan of ground chicken, so I replaced the chicken with ground turkey and turkey Italian sausage.  I also cut the amount of cheese in the meatballs by half and add a rind of Parmesan to the soup.  It cut back on some of the calories.  I also replaced the homemade chicken stock with Swanson's chicken stock and cut back on the salt.  I served with a paisano bread from Whole Foods and for dessert, finished with two cheeses and grapes.  They loved it. 

Italian Wedding Soup

Total Time:

1 hr 15 min

Prep

30 min

Cook

45 min

Yield:

8 servings

Italian Wedding Soup2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, All Rights Reserved

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• 3/4 pound ground chicken
• 1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed
• 2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the soup:

• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 cup minced yellow onion
• 1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 10 cups homemade chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars
• 1/4 cup minced fresh dill
• 12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil and parmesan cheese rind. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Remove rind. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.

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