Italian Wedding Soup

Yep...more SOUP!

Italian Wedding Soup

For the meatballs:

1 lb Italian sausage, mild*

1/2 small onion, minced

1/2 c bread crumbs

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

1 egg

Soup:

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

3-4 carrots, sliced

2-3 large handfuls baby spinach

1-2 qt chicken broth

1-1 1/2 c small pasta

Parmesan, shaved for garnish

Combine meatball ingredients with hands.

Heat a dutch oven or soup pot until hot, add 1-2 tsp olive oil.

Drop meat by tsp into pot and brown in 2 batches.

(I used a sm cookie scoop filling it halfway and using my palm

to form mini-meatballs. These don't have to be very uniform).

Remove meat. Drain excess fat if necessary.

Saute onions until softened, 3-4 minutes.

Add garlic and carrots, cook 1 minute.

Add broth and bring to a boil.

Add pasta and meatballs and simmer until cooked through.

Add spinach and wilt.

Garnish with cheese and serve!

*Feel free to use lean ground beef and or a combination of beef and pork.

If I were using just beef I would add some more spices, perhaps some

Italian seasoning, extra basil and some fresh parsley if I had it.

I loved the flavor the Italian sausage gave to this soup and it had

just enough of a peppery bite in the meatball.

Doctor up this soup to suit your taste - use frozen meatballs and spinach if that's what you have.

This would also be delicious with white beans instead of pasta.

Enjoy...and stay warm!

PS. I promise this soup is not at all greasy like my first picture might suggest.
That's courtesy of my lighting/photography/mad camera skills!

This is my version of one I found here. It's such a fab recipe source!