Italian Wedding Soup

My Italian Wedding Soup has been a viral sensation on the internet over the past few years, with well over 20 million views and hundreds of thousands of likes. With my technique of frying the meatballs for extra flavor and adding simple ingredients like a parmesan rind, this soup is one of our weeknight family favorites!

If you love Italian soup, you HAVE to give these a try:Pasta Fagioli with Spinach, EASY Chicken Farro Soup, Classic Italian Minestrone, orWhite Bean Lentil Soup.

A Quick Look at The Recipe

• ✅Recipe Name: Italian Wedding Soup
• ⏲️Ready in: 1 Hour
• 👪Makes: 8 servings
• 📋Main ingredients: Mini Meatballs, Spinach, Orzo.
• ⭐Why You'll Love This Recipe: Italian Wedding Soup is a hearty, filling Italian-American classic. It's the perfect comfort meal for any weekend or cold winter day!

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Why This Recipe?

This recipe is the best Italian-American rendition of Italian Wedding Soup because of a few key details:

• Fry the meatballs to develop a sear and fond on the bottom of the pan.
• You can adjust the recipe to use the vegetables and ingredients available to you.
• Simple tips like adding parmesan rinds and seasoning in layers.
• Cooked in under an hour.

Although it's not actually served at Italian weddings, this dish is called Italian Wedding Soup because its translation from minestra maritata (married soup) got a little confusing for people. The soup is called "married" because of the marrying of meat and vegetables together in the soup. It's similar to a Zuppa Toscana with the meat and vegetables combined in the soup!

Whatever the reason this soup is called Italian Wedding Soup, it's delicious, and it is a whole meal and not just a side soup. Even though it is an Americanized version of an Italian classic, it's just as delicious, similar to our One-Pot Lasagna Soup.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Meatballs. My mom likes to use ground pork and ground beef for her meatballs. My mother-in-law has always used just ground beef. I lean toward only ground beef even when I'm making Classic Italian Fried Meatballs, because I am usually only making a pound of meatballs. Also, these meatballs are so small that you don't need to use an egg as a binder. Substitute our Italian-Style Chicken Meatballs if you prefer chicken.
• Pasta. Classic Italian Wedding Soup is made with acini de pepe, but it's not always easy to find. You can substitute orzo as I did, or use any pastina.
• Parmesan Rind. I like to add a Parmesan rind to my soup. It's an additional salty flavor that will help with the depth of flavor in the soup.
• Vegetables. Celery can be an additional add-on vegetable, but we don't typically use it in our wedding soup. Since wedding soup can be whatever veggies you want, feel free to add celery if you like that in your soffritto.
• Spinach. Escarole is a more authentic Italian substitute that we sometimes use, but spinach is a lot easier to find.

*Please see the recipe card below for more information on the ingredients

How to Make Italian Wedding Soup

Step 1: Combine ground beef, parmesan, parsley, breadcrumbs, milk, salt, and pepper for the meatballs.

Step 2: Roll the meatballs out into quarter-sized meatballs. Making the little meatballs can be a pain without a little scooper. If you have one, you can make them all the same size.

Step 3: In the pot, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Sear the meatballs for about 30-45 seconds on each side. They will sear quickly because they're so small. Set them aside.

Step 4: Remove the oil from the pot. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté for 5 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add the carrots and sauté for 3 more minutes until they are glistening as shown in PHOTO 4. Then stir in the garlic for a minute until fragrant.

Testing Tip: I've tested this recipe over 15 times with and without searing the meatballs. Searing is by far better than traditional boiling of the meatballs.

Step 5: Pour in the broth and add the bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of salt. This is when I'd typically add a parmesan rind for flavor. Bring to a boil and then immediately lower to a simmer.

Step 6: Add the meatballs and simmer for 15 minutes. Then stir in the pasta and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes until the pasta is al dente.

Step 7: Remove from the heat. Add the spinach and cover for 3 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the spinach. Serve hot!

Top-Tips

1. Searing vs. not searing the meatballs. Look, I know they're not usually seared in wedding soup, but here's why I do it:
   • The problem with simmering 80/20 beef in soup is that the meat lets off fat, and then the soup has a layer of fat. I sear the meatballs to render the fat off.
   • The searing process creates a layer of fond on the bottom of the pan. This, once deglazed, will create a more savory flavor in the soup.
   • Seared meatballs are objectively more flavorful than those that are just simmered. You might lose some of the tender texture, but the flavor is more important.
2. Sautéing the vegetables. Let the onion soften before adding the carrots. Don't saute the carrots for too long. You want them to hold their shape in the soup! Add them to the onions right as the onions are about ready.
3. Don't overwork your meatballs. The less you mix them, the softer their texture will be.
4. Add a parmesan rind when you add your bay leaves. Parmesan rinds are filled with salt and help slowly season your soup as it cooks.

Storage and Reheating

If you plan on storing a lot of the soup, I suggest cooking the orzo separately and then adding it in as you eat, so that the pasta doesn't soak up all of the soup when you store it away. When the pasta is bigger, like the tortellini in Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup with Sausageor Broccoli Rabe and Tortellini Soup, you don't have to worry as much about the soup being soaked up.

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days and in the freezer for 3 months.

When reheating, if you already have pasta in the soup, add extra chicken broth because the pasta will have soaked up a lot.

FAQs on Italian Wedding Soup

What does Italian Wedding Soup contain?

There's a lot of debate about what's actually in this soup, but basically, as long as it has meatballs, leafy greens, and some pastina, you can call it Italian wedding soup.

Is Italian Wedding Soup actually Italian?

So many people think this soup isn't actually Italian. It is definitely Italian, but it has nothing to do with a wedding. The word wedding was loosely translated from the Italian name minestra maritata, which means "married" soup, referring to the marrying of inexpensive meat and leafy greens in the soup!

Can I bake meatballs instead of searing them in Italian Wedding Soup?

No, not really. The meatballs are so small that you will dry them out by trying to bake them. While Should you Bake or Fry Meatballs is a perfectly normal question when it comes to larger meatballs, you're better off just cooking the meatballs in the soup if you don't want to fry.

What do I do if my meatballs feel wet/dry?

When making meatballs for Italian wedding soup, you may have to adjust your milk and breadcrumbs amounts. If the meatball mixture is feeling a bit dry add 2 more tablespoon of milk. If it feels too wet and sticky, add 2 tablespoon of breadcrumbs.

Favorite Italian-American Classics

• Spicy Chicken Riggies
• Authentic Italian Lasagna
• Classic Italian Fried Meatballs
• Italian Meatloaf