Souper Tuesday: Italian wedding soup

Daily Maverick

6 days ago

There's something special about this dish, despite its apparent simplicity. And no, you don't consume this at Italian weddings.
Names can be misleading: this soup has nothing whatsoever to do with weddings – not even Italian ones. The only marriage in an Italian wedding soup is between the vegetables, meatballs and pasta it contains.
'Italian wedding soup' is a translation of minestra maritata (soup marriage), but it's the sofrito, the Italian equivalent of France's mirepoix (onion, celery, carrots), that are spliced with meatballs and small pasta in a broth, that make the marriage work. So it's a rather saucy ménage à trois, rather than a conventional marriage.
But, for me, the two elements that make this dish special are the tiny meatballs you make by hand, and the parmesan that brings everything together at the end. They are the factors that create an impact of flavour that is not quite there until these ingredients are added. Suddenly, everything changes.
The meatballs aren't your standard frikkadel. They're small, made from about 1 teaspoon of a minced meat mixture. And they're made of both beef mince and a kind of pork mince. This can be simple minced/ground pork, or Italian sausage. I interpreted this in my own way, using a chunk of pepper salami that I happened to have in the fridge and which I shredded as finely as I could. It's bound with an egg.
So my version will be peppier than most, unless you use a milder salami or other Italian sausage instead. Recipes tend to call for a mild Italian sausage. But what's wrong with a bit of extra flavour?
There's also parmesan in the meatballs, as well as breadcrumbs (I used panko), parsley, garlic and oregano.
Baby spinach, or escarole (a green leaf in the chicory family), is another ingredient, although I had to swap this out with another green leaf as there was none in my local shops. When you see that I used basil instead, understand please that my small-town life means I sometimes have to compromise. So just get down to Woolies or Checkers and grab some baby spinach instead.
The carrier for the soup is chicken stock. You can make your own (recipe below) or use liquid stock dissolved in water.
The pasta is meant to be acini de pepe (tiny pasta shaped like grape seeds, hence the name acini, plural of acino, meaning grape), though orzo (pasta resembling rice) is often substituted.
I added a strip of hard old parmesan rind to the soup, though this is not usually found in traditional recipes for this broth.
Regarding the pasta: here we go again, I thought, as I scanned the pasta sections of three local supermarkets: no small pasta at all. So I boxed clever: I did find some capelli d'angelo (angelhair pasta), which I chopped up. That's a first in my kitchen but it worked out really well. I loved the fine strips of this pasta in my soup bowl.
Seasoning the soup with salt is important, and do it to taste. It is meant to be fairly salty, but don't go too far.
Tony's Italian wedding soup
(Serves 4 generously)
Ingredients
For the chicken stock:
1 chicken carcass, chopped up
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
3 leeks, roughly chopped
4 cloves
Handful of parsley, chopped
3 thyme sprigs
1 scant tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp salt
4 litres cold water
Method:
Add all ingredients to a large stock pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, reduce to a brisk simmer and cook for 2-3 hours until you have about 2 litres of stock. Strain into a jug or bowl and discard the solids.
For the meatballs:
1 jumbo egg
250 g lean minced beef
250 g Italian sausage, very finely chopped (or minced/ground pork)
3 heaped T panko crumbs
3 heaped T finely chopped parsley
3 heaped T finely grated Parmesan
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp black pepper
A drop or two of olive oil for forming the meatballs
For the soup:
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 litres chicken stock, or dissolve 8 sachets of liquid chicken stock in 2 litres water
A strip of old Parmesan rind
2 cups finely grated parmesan
Salt and black pepper to taste
100 g small pasta such as acini de pepe or orzo
100 g baby spinach leaves (or about 16 basil leaves, torn)
More parmesan, finely grated, to serve
Method
For the meatballs:
In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly and add the minced beef, very finely chopped salami or other Italian sausage (or ground pork), panko crumbs, chopped parsley, finely grated parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano or other hard parmesan cheese), dried oregano and garlic, and season with salt and black pepper.
Mix the mixture lightly with clean hands. Pour a drop of olive oil into your palm, rub your palms together, take up small amounts (about a teaspoonful) of the mixture and form them into balls. Put them on a plate. The mixture made exactly 40 little meatballs for me.
Add olive oil to a heavy frying pan on a moderate heat. Fry the meatballs in batches on all sides, for 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Shake the pan to keep rolling them around. Drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper.
For the soup:
Chop the onion, carrots and celery and cook gently in olive oil, stirring now and then, for 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the chopped garlic, season with salt and black pepper, and cook gently for a minute or two more.
Add the chicken stock and parmesan rind to the soup, bring it to a simmer, and cook gently for about 10 minutes. Stir in the 2 cups finely grated parmesan.
Add the pasta and cook gently until just tender (al dente).
Turn off the heat.
Add the baby spinach leaves to wilt in the soup immediately before serving. Or tear basil leaves into small pieces and stir into the soup.
Serve in wide bowls (to show off the meatballs and other small bits and pieces) sprinkled with finely grated Parmesan. DM