Italian Wedding Soup

This rich and savoury soup is both hearty and comforting. Prepared with aromatic vegetables, fresh spinach leaves, pasta, and meatballs, it’s a nutrient-heavy soup that the whole family will love. Serve this soup with good crusty bread and a generous sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan cheese!

We absolutely love this Italian Wedding Soup! In fact, we love just about every soup! This is a very hearty soup, which means it’s filling and is the kind of soup you want to eat on a cold day. It’s a soup that makes you feel all warm and cozy inside. The soup is packed with good-for-you ingredients too, which in my opinion, makes eating meatballs and pasta feel just a little bit healthier! There are onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and spinach too!

Speaking of good-for-you soup, don’t forget to check out my Cold Weather Lentil Soup or this Chunky Vegetable and Spinach Soup. Instead of me just listing all of my favourite soups, just click here to see all of them!

So, let’s get down to business and discuss the ins and outs of this soup. Because, when it comes to making homemade soup, there really are no rules. As long as there’s enough broth in the pot, and as long as none of the ingredients are overcooked or underdone, there are no rules.

WHAT TYPE OF MEATBALLS CAN I USE?

As I mentioned in the recipe card, you can use meatballs that you prepare on your own, or you can use frozen store-bought meatballs. I know that sometimes the thought of having to prepare one recipe just to make another recipe can be quite daunting, so this recipe has been tested with frozen meatballs and it works perfectly!

If you really want to go all out and make meatballs from scratch, please do so. Most of us have a meatball recipe at home that we use over and over again, so you can use that one. If you don’t have such a recipe, I would recommend this one: Easy Homemade Meatballs.

Good news for vegetarians!!! Frozen vegetarian meatballs will work perfectly, making this dish a vegetarian meal that’s hearty, wholesome, and one the whole family can eat.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Meatballs – You can make your own meatballs, or you can use store-bought frozen meatballs. If you want, you can use vegetarian meatballs too!
• Olive Oil
• Onions – You can use yellow or white onions.
• Celery – I love celery in soup, but it can overpower the flavour, so use it sparingly.
• Carrots – I save my thinner carrots for crudités because the tend to be sweeter. If you buy carrots by the bag, use the larger carrots for soups and stews. Plus, with larger carrots, you can get a more even dice.
• Garlic – Fresh garlic will result in the best flavour every single time. 
• Vegetable Stock – If you are using store-bought, use low sodium. Some of them can be overly salty!
• Italian Seasoning – I have a great homemade Italian Seasoning Blend recipe right here!
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper
• Baby Spinach Leaves
• Parsley – For freshness, colour, and garnish.
• Pasta – I’m using acini di pepe pasta, but you can use ditalini, orecchiette, orzo, or another small pasta.
• Parmesan Cheese

HOW TO MAKE ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP

While the meatballs are cooking according to the instructions on the package or according to your homemade meatball recipe, add the olive oil, onions, carrots, celery, salt, and ground black pepper to a heavy-bottomed soup or stock pot. Over medium heat, cook the veggies for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Next, add the broth and Italian Seasoning. Continue to cook for 10 more minutes. Add the spinach leaves and cooked meatballs. Lower the heat to simmer and simmer for 5 minutes. Finally, turn off the heat and stir in the parsley. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with parmesan cheese. Serve with crusty bread.

THE HOLY TRINITY OF A GOOD SOUP

Have you ever heard of a mirepoix? Sometimes, it’s referred to as the Holy Trinity of cooking. It is a flavour base made from diced vegetables cooked in some type of fat, usually, butter or oil. The veggies are sometimes cooked for a long period of time on very low heat. The goal is to not brown the veggies. Other times, they are cooked on a higher heat to bring out the natural sweetness. This is usually the case in soups.

A mirepoix is most often found combined with tomatoes or tomato paste. This creates a darker, brown mixture called a pincage. It is a long-standing cooking technique in French cuisine. Mirepoix is widely used to flavour a variety of Western dishes, such as stocks, soups, stews and sauces.

In Italian cuisine, the onions, carrots and celery are chopped to form a battuto. It is slowly cooked in butter or olive oil, becoming soffritto. It is used as the base for most pasta sauces, such as ragu, but occasionally it can be used as the base of other dishes, such as sautéed vegetables. Most of the time, the Italian version will also include garlic, shallots, or even leeks.

ADD SOME WARMTH!

If I were preparing this soup for just me, I would most certainly add some spiciness and heat to it. Whenever I prepare a dish that I know John.e is going to eat as well, I have to leave out the spice factor because he cannot handle hot food at all.

Now, when I say adding spice and heat to this soup, I’m not just referring to the option of adding in some dried red chili flakes. I know this is an easy addition and an easy go-to for most of us because most of us will have a jar of that somewhere in our pantry. No, I’m talking about something a little better. I’m talking about rotel tomatoes! I make my own rotel tomatoes and always have many jars of them ready to go in my pantry.

Fire-roasted tomatoes and chilies are what make up the bulk of Canned Rotel Style Tomatoes. They can be either mild or spicy, depending on your personal preference. Add a jar of these tomatoes to pasta sauce, chili, casseroles, and even bean dip! The possibilities are endless and the flavour is tremendous! And a jar of these tomatoes would add just the right amount of warmth to this Italian Wedding Soup without altering the consistency too much.

LEFTOVERS AND/OR FREEZING

This recipe does make about 6 hearty servings, which might be too much or too little, depending on the size of your family. The recipe can easily be halved or even doubled. Just be sure to use a really big soup pot if you’re doubling this recipe! Once everyone has had their fill, you might have some leftovers. If so, you can transfer the cooled soup to a food-safe container and store it in the fridge. It will keep for at least 3-4 days. Otherwise, you can freeze it and it will last for 3 months.

If you do refrigerate or freeze the leftovers, you may need to add a bit of water to the soup when reheating. Start with just a few tablespoons of water at a time to avoid turning the soup into a broth! Of course, if you add more water, you will need to re-season as well.

Once the pasta is cooked into the soup, it will continue to absorb the moisture from the soup, which means the pasta will swell and become thick and soft. If you know you’re going to have leftovers, you can avoid this by portioning out the amount of soup you plan to freeze before you add pasta to the soup to cook. This is also a great way to prepare the soup ahead of time. Just reheat it with some pasta for a very quick and easy weeknight dinner!

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!