Italian Wedding Soup

10/24/2014 by Laura 1 Comment

As I say goodbye to the best summer ever in the Pacific Northwest, I try to convince myself there are benefits to the cooler weather. I replace my t-shirt with my favorite sweater, my flip-flops with my awesome purple suede boots, and snuggle into a bed fitted with soft flannel sheets and a fluffy down comforter. Drifting off to sleep, I dream about SOUP! Not July’s cold, fruity, melted popsicle like soup but hearty, hot, fill your belly, warm your soul, go on to live another day kind of soup! Butternut Squash Soup, White Bean and Kale Soup, Lentil Soup, Beef and Barely Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup (always on hand in the freezer for unplanned cold or flu), and soups I have yet to invent, soups from foreign lands, made with spices, beans and grains I have never tried. I snap out of my pre-winter doldrums and find myself almost giddy with excitement. I have stock to make, bones and veggies to roast, broth to clarify, beans to soak, and recipes to research. Where’s my tureen? I think I need a new stock pot! “Dave, I’m heading to Restaurant Supply, I’ll be back in an hour”!

It has been pouring heavy, bone-chilling rain all week. We’ve had a fire three nights out of five. I finally made time to make a pot of soup. I absolutely love Italian Wedding Soup. I have no idea when or where I first had it, but I always order it when it’s on the menu! I love the combination of the rich broth, the little one-bite meatballs and the strong, bitter greens, traditionally endive. In researching recipes, I learned this soup has nothing to do with weddings. Per Wikipedia, the term “wedding soup” is a mistranslation of the Italian language phrase “minestra maritata (“married soup”),” which is a reference to the fact that green vegetables and meats go well together. As you can imagine, there are hundreds of variations of this soup. My version is a combination of Whole Foods and Ina Garten’s recipes tailored to what I had on hand.

For the Meatballs

1 pound ground chicken

1 pound ground chicken Italian sausage

1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs

3 cloves minced garlic

4 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

2 tablespoons fresh minced oregano

1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of milk

salt and pepper to taste

Mince the garlic, parsley and oregano. Place the meats, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, eggs, milk, garlic and herbs in a large bowl and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Add a little more milk if the mixture is too dry and not sticking together. Add a few more bread crumbs if the mixture is too wet and falling apart. Make a “test” meat ball. Warm a skillet over medium heat. Add a little olive oil to the skillet. Fry the test meatball until done, about 4 minutes on each side. Taste the meatball and adjust the seasoning. Proceed making small meatballs with the remainder of the meat. The chicken mixture is a little sticky. Dampening your hands with cool water will help. Place the meatballs on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 350′ to set the meatballs. Set aside until ready to add to the soup.

For the Soup

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced carrot

1 cup diced celery

3 cloves minced garlic

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

3 quarts rich chicken stock – I used the new Pacific Foods Organic Bone Broth – It’s as close to homemade stock as you can get!

1 14.5 ounce can fire roasted, organic diced tomatoes

16 ounces small pasta, I used mini-shells

16 ounces baby kale, or chard, or spinach or endive or any combination

salt and pepper

1/2 cup freshly grated Percorino Romano cheese

Sauté the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot, about 5-7 minutes. Add the white wine and stir. Add the stock and tomatoes. Bring to a slow simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add the meatballs and continue to simmer slowly. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and prepare the pasta. Cook about 5 minutes, drain and add to the soup.*** Return to a slow simmer. Stir in the grated cheese. About 5 minutes prior to serving, add the greens. Cook just until the greens slightly “melt” into the soup. Ladle into soup bowls. Garnish with additional grated cheese and a little minced parsley.

***Both of the recipes I referenced instruct you to cook the pasta in the soup. NEVER do that with any pasta. You will end up with a big, cloudy, sticky mess. As a matter of fact, it is often best to keep the pasta out of the soup entirely, until ready to eat. Just place a little pasta in the bowl and then pour the hot soup over it when ready to serve.

Build a big roaring fire, pour yourself a glass of Pinot Grigio, and hunker down with your hot bowl of soup. We’ve got about 5 more months of this!

Have a great evening,

Laura

Ya Sure, You Betcha … Köttbullar … Swedish Meatballs

11/14/2013 by Laura 2 Comments

I guess these may technically be FINNISH Meatballs…. Since I am not Swedish, but 50% Finnish! Regardless, they are delicious. As usual, I looked at a bunch of recipes for ideas. Since I wanted to make enough for a few meals, I came up with what you see here. We had a delicious dinner, and 3 more meals worth went in the freezer! Hurray for leftovers!

For the Meatballs (This recipe made about 60 meatballs)

8 slices soft, white bread, crusts removed, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup milk or cream

Place the bread and milk in a bowl. Soak the bread until soft. Mix it up with a fork to make sure it is all softened.

24 ounces ground pork

40 ounces lean ground beef

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 medium yellow onion, grated (Yes, grated – if you have onion goggles, you will want to wear them!)

1 teaspoon ground allspice

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup of flour

2 quarts beef stock

1 16 ounce container of sour cream

Butter for frying

Combine soaked bread pieces, pork, beef, eggs, onion, allspice and salt and pepper in a big mixing bowl. Mix and mix and mix and then mix some more. You want the mixture to be light and fluffy. If too “wet” to hold together, add a half cup of Panko bread crumbs. (Yes, these are referred to Japanese bread crumbs. However, they are made with white bread that has had the crusts removed. This should not cause an international crisis, as I have seen in some comments on other recipes!)

Pre-heat the oven to 325′. Shape the meat mixture into 1-2 inch meatballs. Melt about a tablespoon of butter in a large sauté pan (or Dutch oven) on medium heat. Brown the meatballs on all sides, in batches, careful not to crowd the pan. Move the meatballs to a baking sheet. Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the sauce.

Sous Chef Jasper is convinced a meatball will fall to the floor! Uh, make that total 59 meatballs!

Heat the sauté pan to medium heat. Add a little more butter to the sauté pan, if needed. Add the flour and make a roux. Add the beef stock slowly and continue to whisk, while bringing the sauce to a boil. The sauce should be thick and glossy. You will be adding sour cream in the next step, and will not be able to add additional thickeners. I actually needed to “tighten up” the sauce a bit so I added, 4 Tablespoons of…..Did you guess it? BISTO! I then let the sauce simmer about 5 more minutes. Reduce the heat to very, very low. Add the sour cream. Stir well. (I used my immersion blender at this stage, to make the sauce as smooth as possible.) Return the meatballs to the saucepan.

The best part….3 more meals!

Serve with buttered noodles or mashed potatoes and LINGONBERRIES! Enjoy…

Mozarella Stuffed Meatballs with Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce and Pappardelle

04/20/2013 by Laura Leave a Comment

There are so many great recipes in Thomas Keller’s “ad hoc at home”, it is hard to choose which one to make next! With the deluge of “April Showers” here in Seattle, we are still into winter style, comfort food. As Dave and I flipped through the book, we decided to give the Stuffed Meatballs a try. That decision led to also making the delicious oven roasted tomato sauce. As always, we added in a few of our own modifications, to make this to our taste.

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 1/2 cup minced leeks

1 1/2 cup finely chopped fennel

3 cloves garlic, minced

Kosher salt

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

3 28 oz cans imported Italian tomatoes

1 Sachet made up of:

1 bay leaf

3 thyme sprigs

10 black peppercorns

2 cloves garlic, smashed

Preheat the oven to 350′

Combine the oil, onion, fennel, leeks and garlic in large oven-proof baking dish or skillet. Sprinkle with salt. Place in oven and bake for about an hour, or until the vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize.

Stir in the red wine vinegar and the brown sugar and return to oven to another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain the canned tomatoes. Coarsely chop half of them, and process the other half in a blender or food processor. Add the chopped tomatoes, the pureed tomatoes, and the sachet to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Return to the oven for another 1 1/2 -2 hours. Stir the sauce every 1/2 hour.

We ended up adding a jar of marinara sauce to this mixture at the end of 90 minutes, as I thought the sauce was more like tomato stew, than sauce. We also ran an immersion blender through the sauce, as it was really chunky. When we make this again, we will not drain the tomatoes as extra liquid was needed. The flavor is fabulous and roasting in the oven is a great technique.

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

3 cloves minced garlic

1 pound ground chuck

8 oz ground veal

8 oz ground pork

8 oz ground sirloin

1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

3 tablespoons fresh, chopped parsley

1 large egg

4 oz fresh mozzarella cut in cubes

Warm the oil in a saute pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook about 20 minutes to soften the vegetables. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Place the ground meats, bread crumbs, egg, parsley and cooled onions in a large bowl. Mix gently by hand until just evenly mixed.

Shape the meatballs into large round balls, about 3 ounces each. Stuff a cube of cheese into the center of each meatball.

Place the meatballs on a cooling rack set into a baking sheet.

Bake the meatballs for 15-18 minutes at 425′. Let the meatballs rest about 10 minutes. We added them to the sauce and kept warm on the stove while the pasta cooked.