Italian Wedding Soup With Chicken Meatballs
This was from Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network. The original recipe called for both ground chicken and chicken sausage. I adjusted the amount of ground chicken for the meatball recipe so that I did not have to use packaged chicken sausage as it was very expensive. I also adjusted the spices.
INGREDIENTS
NutritionFor the meatballs
- 1 1⁄4lbs ground chicken
- 2⁄3cup fresh white breadcrumbs
- 3
- 4
- 1⁄4cup grated pecorino romano cheese
- 1⁄3cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1teaspoon fennel seed
- 3tablespoons milk
- 1
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- 1teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
For the soup
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- 1cup minced yellow onion
- 1
- 3⁄4
- 10cups chicken stock
- 1⁄2cup dry white wine
- 1
- 1⁄4cup minced fresh dill
- 12ounces Baby Spinach, washed and trimmed
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- For the meatballs,.
- In a large bowl combine ground chicken, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino Romano, Parmesan, fennel seeds, milk, egg, salt, and pepper.
- Combine gently with a fork.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto sheet pan. You should have about 40 meatballs.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
- In the meantime, for the soup.
- Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot.
- Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil.
- Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender.
- Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper.
- Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted.
- Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.
- Notes.
- You can also subsitute escarole for spinach in this recipe.
- Gran Pandano is a less expersive parm cheese Only parm cheese from a certain area and certain cows can be stamped parm reggiano the King of cheeses in Italy.
- To make quick meatballs, divide up meat mixture into quarters. Roll each quarter into a long log and then cut into pieces. You can then roll the pieces into meatballs (or not - shape doesn't matter in the soup).