Italian Wedding Soup

Two blogs in one day! I'm a maniac. I've been meaning to post about Italian Wedding soup for a while and with Steph's cream of asparagus soup post, I decided to make it a soup day. Let's get to it:

This is a Giada receipe that I fanangled a bit. Fanangled is totally a word. Start by making the most important part - the meatballs! Finely chop one medium yellow onion, and saute it in a small frying pan a two count of olive oil and 4 chopped cloves of garlic and 1/3 cup of chopped fresh parsley. Cook over medium heat for around ten minutes, until the onions are tender and just beginning to color. Remove from heat and let cool. In a mixing bowl combine the cooled onions/garlic/parsley with 8 ounces of ground pork, 8 ounces of ground beef (20% fat, just do it), one large egg, 1/4 cup bread crumbs, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, one teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper. Get right up in there and mix everything together with your hands, then shape into small bite-sized meatballs - around one inch or so. Place on a plate or small baking sheet and refrigerate for fifteen minutes.

Get out your soup pot and heat a four count of olive oil over medium high heat for a couple of minutes. Cook your meatballs over medium heat in the pot (you may need to do this in batches to avoid over crowding), just to nicely brown the outside - they won't be cooked through so no chef tasting! You'll finish cooking them in the broth. Once you've removed the browned meatballs, de-glaze the pot with 1/2 cup of white wine. Next add ten cups of chicken stock, salt/pepper to taste and bring to a simmer. Carefully add your browned meatballs back to the pot and cook through, this will take five minutes or so. Next add one bag of baby spinach leaves (note - Giada uses one pound of chopped escarole, which I may try next time, I think it will hold up better than the spinach for leftovers). Cook the spinach for a few minutes (note - escarole will take longer, around ten minutes, so I would add that with the meatballs) over medium heat. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together two large eggs with 2/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Add this mixture to the soup slowly, while stirring with a fork to make long strands of egg. Stir carefully for another minute, taste for seasonings and add if necessary, then add the juice of 1/2 lemon (or a whole lemon if it's small). You're done! Pretty simple, right?

Get to it and let me know what you think about spinach vs. escarole.

xo

d