Italian Wedding Soup

As one of this weekend's bride's relatives told me, Italian Wedding Soup or "Married Soup" is a reference to the fact that the green veggies and the meat go well together.    This soup was warming and filling with pasta, spinach, onions and meatballs.

Italian Wedding Soup with Meatballs

It's not too time consuming, a lot of times I make a version of this without the meatballs and eat it through out the week.

Meatballs:

• 1 small onion, minced
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 slice fresh white bread, crust trimmed, bread torn into small pieces
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 16 oz. ground turkey
• Freshly ground black pepper

Soup:

• 12 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 pound curly endive, coarsely chopped (1 pound of escarole would be a good substitution or chopped spinach)
• 1 lb. orzo or other small pasta
• 2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

To make the meatballs: Stir the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese and turkey. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a baking sheet (you can also brown in fry pan).

To make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs, pasta and curly endive and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the curly endive is tender, about 8 minutes.   Season with sea salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with Parmesan Cheese.