topic Re: Mini Meatball Soup in Recipes

Mini Meatball Soup

Chi-town girl — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:25:36 GMT

Looking for some new soup receipes? As much as we love my "classics" chicken soup or potato soup, we're getting bored with them.

This looks good!

Mini Meatball Soup

Level: Easy
Total: 47 min

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 27 min

Yield: 4 big servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan in a slow stream

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 bay leaves, fresh or dried

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound ground beef, pork and veal combined

1 egg, beaten

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano, a couple of handfuls

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs, a couple of handfuls

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg

6 cups chicken stock or broth

2 cups water

1 1/2 cups dried pasta, rings, broken fettuccini or ditalini

1 pound triple washed fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

Grilled 4 Cheese Sandwiches, recipe follows*

Grilled 4 Cheese Sandwiches

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan

3 tablespoons butter

1 clove garlic, cracked away from skin

8 slices crusty Italian semolina bread

1 cup shredded provolone

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano

1 cup shredded Asiago

Directions

In a deep pot over medium heat add oil, chopped carrots, celery and onions and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. Cover pot and cook veggies 5 or 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the veggies cook, combine meat, egg, garlic, grated cheese, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg.
Uncover your soup pot and add broth and water to the pot. Increase heat to high and bring soup to a boil. When soup boils, reduce heat a bit and start to roll meat mixture into small balls, dropping them straight into the pot. You are making meat dumplings that will cook in the broth. When you are done rolling the meat, add pasta to the soup and stir. Cover and simmer soup 10 minutes. When pasta is tender, stir in chopped spinach in batches. When spinach has wilted into the soup, the soup is done and ready to serve. Adjust your seasonings. Serve soup with crusty bread or grilled 4 cheese sandwiches.

Grilled 4 Cheese Sandwiches

In a small skillet over medium low heat, combine oil, butter and garlic. Cook garlic in butter and oil gently for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove garlic butter mixture from heat.
Place a large nonstick skillet on the stove over medium high heat. Using a pastry brush, brush 1 side of 4 slices of bread with garlic oil and place buttered side down in skillet. Top each slice with equal amounts of the 4 cheeses, distributing them equally over the 4 slices. Top each sandwich with another slice of bread brushed with garlic butter, buttered side up. Flip the grill cheese sandwiches a few times until cheeses are melted and gooey and bread is toasty and golden. Cut grilled 4 cheese sandwiches from corner to corner and serve.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Toots711 — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:42:48 GMT

Thank You for posting this recipe @Chi-town girl!

I will try to make it soon.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Chi-town girl — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:45:51 GMT

@Toots711 wrote:
Thank You for posting this recipe @Chi-town girl!
I will try to make it soon.

You're welcome @Toots711

I'm definitely going to make it soon

I wondering if I can just use ground beef instead of the beef/pork/veal mix and still have it turn out good??? Or half beef half pork?

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

RespectLife — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:18:45 GMT

Italian Wedding Soup!

Usually it is made w/ anci de pepe (baby pastina) but Ditalini works too!

I am lucky that the Italian mkt near my house has frozen mini meatballs! I could never have the patience to make them that small. LOL

What also works in a pinch is buying your favorite frozen meatballs and just dicing them.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

nada54 — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:26:51 GMT

You could. But the best meatballs have the mixture. At our store they sell what they call 'meatloaf mix' its perfect for meatballs. Its all in there. Thanks for posting. Love recipes, especially when its so cold.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Chi-town girl — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:30:38 GMT

@RespectLife wrote:
Italian Wedding Soup!

Usually it is made w/ anci de pepe (baby pastina) but Ditalini works too!

I am lucky that the Italian mkt near my house has frozen mini meatballs! I could never have the patience to make them that small. LOL

What also works in a pinch is buying your favorite frozen meatballs and just dicing them.

@RespectLife - oh, I haven't made a Italian Wedding Soup. I love the process of just rolling and dumping in the meatballs to cook in the soup. I will check with the butcher in our store for the meat mixture. TY @RespectLife

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Chi-town girl — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:33:10 GMT

@nada54 wrote:
You could. But the best meatballs have the mixture. At our store they sell what they call 'meatloaf mix' its perfect for meatballs. Its all in there. Thanks for posting. Love recipes, especially when its so cold.

Thank you @nada54

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

godi — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 22:26:06 GMT

Yum yum. Thanks @Chi-town girl

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Carmie — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 22:27:13 GMT

@RespectLife wrote:
Italian Wedding Soup!

Usually it is made w/ anci de pepe (baby pastina) but Ditalini works too!

I am lucky that the Italian mkt near my house has frozen mini meatballs! I could never have the patience to make them that small. LOL

What also works in a pinch is buying your favorite frozen meatballs and just dicing them.

Americanized Italian wedding soup uses pasta ans spinach.

My Italian family's recipe uses chicken broth, a couple of heads of escarole, mini meatballs, and whipped eggs and grated cheese. No pasta is used at all.

Anyway you make, it tastes good.

I have rolled thousands of mini meatballs in my lifetime.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

jubilant — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:13:10 GMT

@Chi-town girl I'm looking for more soup recipes. This one sounds yummy. The only thing I might cut down on is the nutmeg. I love it but DH doesn't so much. Maybe 1/4 tsp. would do it. Thanks for sharing it.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

rms1954 — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 20:43:28 GMT

That's a lot of time ... I just get

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Chi-town girl — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 02:38:16 GMT

@jubilant wrote:
@Chi-town girl I'm looking for more soup recipes. This one sounds yummy. The only thing I might cut down on is the nutmeg. I love it but DH doesn't so much. Maybe 1/4 tsp. would do it. Thanks for sharing it.

@jubilant - I am always careful about the quantity of certain spices like nutmeg and cinnamon that I add to savory foods. You can always add more.

I'm still looking at more soup recipes, stay tuned 😁

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

RespectLife — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 14:26:39 GMT

@Carmie wrote:
@RespectLife wrote:
Italian Wedding Soup!

Usually it is made w/ anci de pepe (baby pastina) but Ditalini works too!

I am lucky that the Italian mkt near my house has frozen mini meatballs! I could never have the patience to make them that small. LOL

What also works in a pinch is buying your favorite frozen meatballs and just dicing them.
Americanized Italian wedding soup uses pasta ans spinach.

My Italian family's recipe uses chicken broth, a couple of heads of escarole, mini meatballs, and whipped eggs and grated cheese. No pasta is used at all.

Anyway you make, it tastes good.

I have rolled thousands of mini meatballs in my lifetime.

Interesting @Carmie

My Italian family never used eggs in the soup. My great gram didn't come to America till she was 17 and always made it very similar to the posted recipe.

My Gram never worked outside the home so she had plenty of time to roll mini meatballs. She'd freeze them and I could steal some of hers!

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Carmie — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 15:11:25 GMT

@RespectLife My paternal grandparents came to America seperately when they were 18 and 20 years old. They met in the US.

My grandfather was from Venefro and my grandmother was from Sicily.

Perhaps the food is different from where your family is from. I have seen many different recipes for Wedding soup over the years.

I have to say that all are good. The meatballs give the soup flavor. I try to make the soup a few times a year and always freeze some and I have made it for family weddings for my nieces and nephews with my sisters a few times.

I often roll 20 to 30 lbs of meatballs at a time and freeze them....not my favorite job. I figure since I am doing it, I might as well get it all over with at the same time for the year.

Our soup uses a lot of escarole, not spinach. The eggs are just like those in egg drop soup. We also use a lot of " stinky" Italian cheese. Now I am hungry.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

Chi-town girl — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 18:58:11 GMT

@Carmie - that looks soooo good!!!

I make regular sized meatballs (using ground turkey) as sides for Italian pasta dinners and always make double batches to freeze some. I will do the same for this soup recipe, but I want to try making them with the beef/pork/veal meat mixture.

Re: Mini Meatball Soup

RespectLife — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 19:28:27 GMT

Yummy @Carmie !

My family is from Northern Italy. My great gram used to get some rough looking spinach for free from a farmer...so that is probably why she used it! LOL

Her meatballs and grams were about 1/4 that size. Really tiny! I remember the two of them chatting so fast in Italian and rolling them in their fingers just that fast.

Their meatballs NEVER included veal like some meatball mixes do in the market.

It was too expensive and no one ever gave it for free. Mostly beef with a little ground pork.