Italian Wedding Soup - Southern Style

Submitted by PanNan

"This is a Southern take on the traditional Italian Wedding Soup. It's from My Family Table by John Besh. This is the version from his PBS TV show. He suggests that this soup be served with corn bread."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 lb Italian sausage (casings removed)
• 1 tablespoon bacon drippings
• 1⁄2 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 egg
• 1⁄2 cup long grain white rice (uncooked)
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 1 cup chopped fresh tomato
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce (or use homemade)
• 1 handful chopped greens (such as mustard or turnip greens)
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 4 fresh basil leaves
• 4 cups black-eyed peas (cooked or canned)
• salt
• ground black pepper

directions

1. Add the diced onion, 1 clove sliced garlic, egg and rice to the sausage in a mixing bowl. Wet your hands a bit and roll the sausage meat into small meatballs.
2. Heat the bacon drippings in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Sear the meatballs quickly in the bacon fat, so that they are well-browned. Add the chicken broth, 1 clove sliced garlic, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and black-eyed peas and bring to a boil. Simmer a few minutes and add the greens, thyme and basil and continue to simmer slowly until the soup is hot and the meatballs and rice are done. Taste and season well with salt and pepper.
3. Divide the meatballs among 6 soup bowls and ladle soup into each bowl.

Reviews

[Honeyspidey]

Very very good! I am a big beans and greens fan, so I was excited to switch it up and try this recipe since I picked up a bunch of fresh black eyed peas at the farmers market and sice this sounded good. <br/><br/>By mistake I picked up hot chicken sausage instead of just regular old sausage and this recipe STILL earns all five of the stars. Very full flavors, and the calorie info is only true if you eat the he-man serving this poster suggests. Oh, and I replaced one of the quarts of stock with a quart of water since stock is pricey and it was still very, very good. I hardly ever log back in to just rate something but this just had to get some props. Thanks for posting! Make it! Will be sending it to all my family.