Unlike most of my recipes I do not remember where it was I first had a hot steamy bowl of Italian Wedding Soup. Perhaps is was at a restaurant or maybe even at a catering hall during a wedding, nah, too corny. Wherever it was, I liked it. I do remember one place in particular that had a very good recipe. This place was deli/caterer with a few table. They made great sandwiches and had wonderful soups. They used to make Italian Wedding very often. They unfortunately, are no longer around so now I have to make it myself.

        Because of the cold weather that we have been having here in New York, I have been making a quite few soups and stews. I thought I should share some of them with you. Unfortunately, for my coworkers I have been reluctant to bring any “extra” soup to work and share it. I have been trying to follow the best practices for social distancing. A chef NEVER wants people getting sick from standing around pot ladling out soup. Perhaps as things start improving I can bring them all in a large pot of this soup or maybe the stuffed cabbage. Wouldn’t  that be a gas! (Scrunchy face)

        Well that’s all the time I have for bad puns this morning. I hope you at lease enjoy the soup even if the jokes aren’t any good.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves 4 to 6

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

Large Pot

Chef’s knife

Large bowl

INGREDIENTS

1 pound extra-lean ground beef

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup dried bread crumbs

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil

3 tablespoons minced onion

2 ½ to 3 quarts chicken broth

2 cups baby spinach – rinsed

1 cups baby Bok-Choy

1 cups escarole – rinsed and cut

1 cup seashell pasta or large white Couscous

3/4 cup diced carrots

3 chicken bouillon cubes

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium bowl, combine the beef, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, basil and onion. Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls and set aside.

In a large stockpot heat chicken broth to boiling and add meatballs and carrot. Return to boil a cook for 10 minutes until meatballs are no longer pink inside. Add the spinach, escarole, pasta. Return to boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, at a slow boil for at least 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente.

NOTES:

Extra chicken broth is sometimes need to reheat leftovers when the pasta has absorbed all that yummy stock.

Enjoy!

The Drunken Chef (Russ)