wedding soup

Long a treat widely available up north and on the east coast, I assume because of the presence of Italian populations, wedding soup is something I haven't seen anywhere down south.  There are several different versions on various recipe websites, but I used to eat my favorite version in a dive restaurant in Erie, and I wanted to try to replicate, and improve on, the way they made it.

I started with the meatballs

I made a panade of a couple of slices of bread, some crushed fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, and about a half a cup of milk, all ground up in the food processor.  To that I added some sweet Italian sausage, mixed it all up, and rolled little meatballs about three quarters of an inch in diameter. Someone asked me how I keep the size so consistent--a small melon baller and a cup of water. Scoop a dollop of meat in the melon baller, round the top, and dump the little meatball on the baking sheet. After about every third meatball, swish the melon baller in the water, washing away residue that can make the meatballs stick.

rolling the little meatballs was a bit tedious, but I 

knew I would have enough to freeze some for later

The meatballs baked in a 350 oven in about twenty minutes.  For aromatics, I sauteed diced onion, and carrots cut into matchsticks.   The carrots could just as easily been diced, but I like the look of the matchsticks, and I don't care for big bites of cooked carrot.  Besides, I have a handy little tool that shaves the matchsticks right off the carrot.  It looks like a vegetable peeler with teeth.

I lightly sauteed the vegetable in olive oil before adding the broth

Sauteing the veggies first is really just habit.  They could have just as easily been simmered in the broth--the soup cooks long enough for them to soften.  For broth I used my new favorite, outside of homemade stock--Swanson no salt-added cooking stock.  It has a clean flavor, and I love being able to control the salt level myself.    Along with the broth, I added about a cup of vermouth, and a boneless, skinless chicken breast, which I cooked at a bare simmer, and took out as soon as it hit an internal temperature of 165.  Chicken breast can get tough and dry if it is cooked too long.  It took about 20 minutes to cook through.  I took the breast out of the stock, added about two cups of water to the broth, and added in a half a cup of orzo pasta--the little pasta shaped like grains of rice.  Any small pasta shape would work.  The addition of water assures that the pasta won't soak up all the broth.  I brought the heat up to medium hi, and while the pasta cooked, I shredded the chicken breast to be stirred in at the last minute.  As soon as the pasta was al dente, I stirred in a full bag of arugula.

looks like a lot of greens, but they cook down a lot--

spinach would work, too, but I like the spicy bite in arugula

The greens cook in about two minutes.  After they cooked down I added about a third of my meatballs, and the shredded chicken.  I tasted for salt, added a bit, and served.

this is a pretty soup hearty enough to make a meal