Italian Wedding Soup With Meatballs That Cook Right in the Broth

It is 12:40 on a Wednesday, there is half a head of escarole going limp in the crisper, and a bag of breadcrumbs has been staring at you since August. This italian wedding soup recipe takes eighteen minutes from cutting board to bowl. It looks like you committed to something, and we will not tell anyone how little it cost you.

Tiny meatballs, a spoonful of pasta, greens that wilt in the pot.

The name is usually explained as a marriage of flavors, the greens and the meat, rather than anything that happens at a reception. That suits a Wednesday: all of the romance, none of the seating chart. You roll the meatballs, you drop them into simmering broth, and the broth does the browning-free cooking for you while you stand there with a wooden spoon and a clear conscience.

Everything arrives in the pot in order. Meatballs first for five minutes, orzo for eight, escarole for the last three, and the bowl is done when the greens have gone silky and the orzo is tender. Parmesan on top, a grind of black pepper, and you are sitting down.

How to make it

1. Mince 3 garlic cloves and chop 1/4 cup fresh parsley. In a bowl combine 8 oz ground beef, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1/3 cup grated parmesan, minced garlic, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Roll into 1/2-inch meatballs.
2. Bring 6 cups chicken broth to a simmer in a large pot. Add the meatballs and cook 5 minutes until they are cooked through.
3. Add 1/2 cup orzo pasta to the simmering broth and cook 8 minutes until tender.
4. Stir in 1/2 head chopped escarole and cook 3 minutes until wilted.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with extra grated parmesan and a grind of black pepper.

Notes

Cooked leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. That makes this italian wedding soup recipe a sensible one to cook for two lunches. Orzo keeps drinking broth as it sits, so the soup you stored as a soup may come back out as a stew. Loosen it with a splash of water or broth when you reheat, and taste before you add salt, because the parmesan and the broth have already been busy.

It freezes acceptably, with the honest caveat that the orzo comes back softer. If you plan to freeze half, ladle that half out before the orzo has had a long swim, or cook the pasta separately next time and add it to each bowl.

The meatball mixture is soft on purpose: ground beef, an egg, breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. Wet hands make the rolling easy. If the mixture sticks to your fingers like a bad ex, rinse, shake and keep going. Keep them to half an inch, because larger meatballs will not be cooked through in five minutes. Cut one open to check, and remember ground beef is safe at a 160°F internal temperature.

Do not let the pot boil hard once the meatballs are in. A gentle simmer keeps them intact and the broth clear. A rolling boil tears them up and clouds the soup.

Escarole is a little bitter on its own and mellows as it wilts. Chop it fairly small so every spoonful has a few leaves in it rather than one long ribbon that ends up round your chin.

Swaps that actually work

The meatballs in broth are the point of this italian wedding soup recipe, so leave that idea alone. Everything around them can move.

Spinach can stand in for the escarole if the crisper betrays you. It wilts faster, so add it for the last minute or so instead of three. Kale works too, but it needs the full three minutes and still has more chew, so chop it small.

Ground turkey or ground pork can replace the beef. Turkey is leaner and can taste a little dry, so a teaspoon or two of extra grated parmesan in the mix helps. Whatever you use, cook the meatballs until they are done through, and remember poultry needs 165°F while ground beef and pork need 160°F.

Small pasta shapes can stand in for orzo, as long as they are small. Tiny stars and little tubes work. Anything bigger changes the ratio of broth to pasta and the eight-minute timing, so check a piece before you pull the pot.

Breadcrumbs can be panko or whatever you have crushed in a bag. Grated parmesan from a block melts into the meatballs better than the shaker kind, and you can finish with the same block.

The swap that costs you the dish is skipping the greens. Without the escarole it is meatballs and pasta in chicken broth, which is a fine thing to eat but not the thing you came here for.

SwipeCart has a quiet opinion about this one: if your plan has a vegetable and a protein and a carb all landing in one bowl, the agent is delighted, and so is the grocery list.

If it goes wrong

The meatballs fall apart in the pot. The broth was boiling instead of simmering, or the mixture was too wet. Turn the heat down until the surface barely moves, and if the next batch still seems loose, add a tablespoon more breadcrumbs.

The meatballs are dense and tough. The mix got squeezed and worked too hard. Mix until it just comes together, then roll lightly. Next time, handle it like you are being gentle with it.

The broth tastes flat. It usually wants salt, or a little more pepper. The recipe only gives you a quarter teaspoon of each, so taste at the end and adjust. A last shower of parmesan on the bowl also does a lot of the work.

The orzo has turned mushy. It sat in the pot after the heat went off. Pull the pot when the pasta is just tender and eat soon, or cook it separately next time and ladle the soup over it.

What to serve with it

The default is a piece of bread and nothing else. This is a complete bowl with the meat, the pasta and the greens already in it, so the bread is for wiping the bowl.

The better version of the default is toasted bread rubbed with the cut side of a garlic clove, which wakes the whole thing up for about a minute of effort. If you have a lemon, a few drops in the bowl brightens the broth and flatters the escarole.

The thing in the fridge that lifts it is any hard cheese rind you have been saving. Simmer it in the broth while the meatballs cook and fish it out before you ladle.

This italian wedding soup recipe works as lunch the next day, as long as you remember the orzo has been drinking and loosen it with a splash of water. It is a good desk lunch for the person who wants people to ask what smells good.

Why this one earns its place

A soup with a wedding in its name suggests someone cared, and this italian wedding soup recipe lets you take the credit for eighteen minutes of effort. It is a good one to swipe into the middle of a week that has already asked too much of you, and the agent can shop the list while you decide what to wear.

If you are building out the rest of the week, what's for dinner tonight is the decision-fatigue fix, chicken noodle soup is the other bowl worth knowing, and meal planning and food waste is where the half head of escarole stops going soft in the crisper.

More like this: all Italian recipes in Crave Corner.