Italian Wedding Soup

I have moments where I say, "I'm going to do a thing," and I do it once and never go back to it. Several years ago, I said, "I'm going to do a food blog" and "I'm going to go back to school in my 30's and get a degree in accounting and then get a Masters." I did one of those things, and from the date of my last blog post, I think you can guess which thing I did and which I didn't do. I still have 6 weeks of class before I get my MAcc, but I wanted to start trying to share some recipes with everyone and, unlike the many diets I have been on, try to stick to it.

I have never been a fan of blogs that drone on and on. I also don't like recipes that show a million pictures of the food with secret steps hidden within the wall of text that is NOT included in the recipe. I don't take a ton of pictures, so some of my recipes won't have them (but I'll add them the next time I make them). The recipe I am sharing with you is from my Aunt Kathy. In my family, she's one of the best cooks and her and my mom secretly compete for Cooking Queen. The recipe calls for a noodle called Acini di Pepe or as my Sicilian grandmother called them (forgive the spelling) "Boumbanines"" (pronounced: Boom-Bah-Neens). I was looking for them in the grocery store using the name my grandmother called them and everyone was looking at me like I was insane. Finally, a stocker held up a box of Acini di Pepe and asked, "Is this it?" Yes... that was it. If you can't find them, any very small pasta will do, but they are a lot more common to find now. 

A note on the ingredients and measurements:

You can use homemade stock if you're feeling fancy, but I use box stock, line Swanson, or Better than Bouillon fairly regularly. A "box" of chicken stock is not a common measurement, but a "box" is four cups. You want your onion and garlic to be fairly fine since the meatballs are on the small-size and big chunks won't work well when forming. So, smaller is better here. The recipe calls for half a bag of spinach. What kind of measurement is a "bag?" In the pre-made salad aisle of the grocery store, there are many different bags of greens. You've probably seen a "romaine mix" or an "ice berg mix." That is the bag I am referring to. Sometimes, I can only find a box of spinach. I weighed the amount of spinach I usually use and it came to about 3 ounces. Alternatively, two large handfuls works too. Finally, the noodles. They are easy to find in any International aisle, but the boxes (or sometimes bags) they come in are small and can be easily overlooked. if you can't find it, don't sweat it, just use the smallest pasta you can find. A friend of mine used pasta stars and the world didn't explode. 

Aunt Kathy’s Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound of bulk Italian pork sausage (I use Bob’s Evans Italian)

½ cup of Italian breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 small onion, finely minced

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 box (approx. 4 cups) of chicken stock (we use Swanson)

½ bag (about 3 ounces) of baby spinach

½ cup of acini di pepe noodles.

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees. Mix together the sausage, breadcrumbs, egg, onion, and garlic. Using your hands is probably the best way to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed. Form into small meatballs, slightly larger than a nickel in diameter. Bake the meatballs on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Turn, and bake for another 10 minutes. In a large stock pot, add the chicken stock and add 4 cups of water. Add salt and pepper to taste keeping in mind that the meatballs will probably bring some salt into the recipe. Bring to a boil. Add the meatballs, spinach, and acini de pepe. Cook for 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary and serve. This recipe can be easily scaled up to serve as many people as desired. As a dinner, I would say this serves 4 people, maybe 5 people.