I had lunch with a friend today, and we dined on hot soup with toasted plain bagels. The eatery we chose was a little hole-in-the-wall bagel shop, and they also serve a different variety of soups every day. I chose one called Italian Wedding Soup as I had never had it, and found it delicious. I did a bit of hunting this afternoon to locate a comparable recipe for the soup, and I finally found one at e-rcps:

Italian Wedding Soup

(Zuppa Maritata)

 

½ LB ground beef

½ LB ground veal, pork or turkey

¼ C bread crumbs (commercial, or grate your own from stale Italian bread)

1 egg

1 TBS parsley, finely chopped

½ clove garlic, minced (optional)

½ tsp. paprika (optional)

½ tsp. salt and pepper to taste

4 C chicken broth

2 C spinach, chopped

¼ C grated Pecorino Romano cheese

 

1). Combine the ground meat, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, minced garlic and salt and pepper in mixing bowl. Mix well with a fork and form into tiny meat balls (shown are about the size of a golf ball, but traditional meatballs are a bit smaller) with your hands. 2). Place the meatballs on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes at 350º F, until brown. (See Alternate, below). 3.) About ten minutes before serving, bring the chicken broth to a boil, add the spinach and cook until tender. Add the meatballs and return soup to a simmer. Stir in the Pecorino cheese and serve.

 

Alternate: You can sauté the meatballs in olive oil until brown and proceed with step 3 (above), or bring your chicken stock to a low boil, add the uncooked meatballs, simmer for about 25 minutes, add the spinach, cook until tender, stir in the cheese and serve.

Being me, I would never use veal as I dislike it. But the rest sounds dandy, and the restaurant version was wonderful.