Creating Heartwarming Wedding Bell Soup For Your Special Day

Italian wedding soup is a delicious, hearty meal that combines meatballs, vegetables, and pasta in a rich broth. Despite its name, the dish is not related to weddings but is instead a peasant dish, made from inexpensive ingredients. The name comes from the Italian phrase minestra maritata, meaning married soup, referring to the marriage of flavours.

To make Italian wedding soup, you'll need to prepare the meatballs first. The meatballs are made from a mixture of ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan, and spices, shaped into small balls. These are then browned in a pan before being added to the soup. The soup is made by simmering vegetables, pasta, and meatballs in a rich broth. The soup is best served hot, with fresh parsley and parmesan cheese on top.

Meatball ingredients and preparation

Meatballs are a key part of wedding bell soup. They are usually made from ground beef, but you can also use ground chicken, turkey, pork, veal, or a combination of these meats. You will also need dry breadcrumbs, eggs, grated Pecorino Romano and Parmesan cheese, oregano, salt, and pepper.

To make the meatballs, combine the ground meat, breadcrumbs, an egg, half of the grated cheese, oregano, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix the ingredients thoroughly but be careful not to overwork the meat. Form the mixture into small balls, usually between 3/4-inch to 1 1/2-inch in diameter. You should end up with around 20 to 30 meatballs, depending on their size.

The next step is to brown the meatballs. Heat some olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs in batches so they don't crowd the pan, and cook, turning occasionally, until they are browned all over. This should take around 3 to 5 minutes. Don't worry if they are still a little pink in the middle, as they will continue cooking in the broth later. Transfer the meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate as each batch finishes cooking.

Some recipes suggest baking the meatballs instead of browning them in a skillet. To do this, preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Drop teaspoon-sized amounts of the meat mixture onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper to form meatballs that are around 1 to 1 1/4 inches in diameter. You should get about 40 meatballs, and they don't need to be perfectly round. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned.

Now that your meatballs are ready, you can move on to the next step of making the soup!

Browning the meatballs

To brown the meatballs, you will need to heat some olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. You can use a Dutch oven, which is ideal for browning meatballs and retaining heat and moisture when making soup. Add the meatballs in batches so as not to crowd the pan and cook, turning occasionally, until browned all over. This should take around 3 to 5 minutes. You can also bake the meatballs in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned.

If you are using frozen meatballs, there is no need to brown them first. Just add them to the soup until heated through.

Once browned, transfer the meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside until you are ready to add them to the soup.

Preparing the soup base

To make the soup base for wedding bell soup, you'll need to prepare the meatballs and cook them before adding them to the soup.

First, make the meatballs by combining ground chicken or beef, chicken sausage, breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese, an egg, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix the ingredients gently with a fork, being careful not to overwork the meat. Form the mixture into small meatballs, about 1 to 1 1/4 inches in size. You should have around 40 meatballs. Place the meatballs on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned.

Next, heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-low heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery, and sauté until softened, stirring occasionally. This should take about 5 to 6 minutes. You can also add some minced garlic to this mixture if desired.

Now, add the chicken or beef broth and bring it to a boil. You can also add some white wine at this stage for a fuller-bodied flavor. Once boiling, reduce the heat and add the pasta. Cook the pasta until it is al dente, or tender yet firm to the bite. This usually takes about 10 minutes.

At this point, you can also add some spinach or other greens such as kale or Swiss chard. Stir them into the soup and cook until they are wilted. Finally, add the cooked meatballs to the soup and simmer for an additional minute or two to heat them through.

Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan cheese.

Adding the pasta

First, select your pasta. Wedding bell soup typically uses small pasta shapes such as orzo, ditalini, acini di pepe, tubetini, stars, or pearl couscous. You can also use any other small pasta you have on hand.

Next, cook your pasta. It's best to cook the pasta separately from the soup. Boil it until al dente, drain, and then add it directly to your serving bowls. This ensures the pasta doesn't absorb too much broth, especially during storage. If you don't have leftovers, you can cook the pasta in the soup or add it to the pot of soup.

Finally, assemble your dish. Ladle the soup over the cooked pasta in the serving bowls. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and serve with crusty, airy bread for dipping.

Serving suggestions

Wedding bell soup is a hearty, comforting dish that can be served as a starter or a main course. It is a meal in itself, so it doesn't need to be served with anything else, but if you want to round out the meal, a warm dinner roll or crusty bread for dipping is a good option. If you're serving it as a starter, it could be followed by a simple arugula salad, a radicchio salad with Parmesan, or a Caesar salad.

If you're making this soup for a casual dinner party, it's easy to prepare in advance and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days or freeze it for up to three months. When you're ready to serve, simply reheat it gently on the stovetop over low heat.

If you have leftovers, be aware that the pasta will continue to absorb the broth, so you may need to add more broth or water when reheating. It's also a good idea to store any leftovers without the pasta and boil fresh pasta when you're ready to serve again.

Frequently asked questions