Italian Wedding Soup

Last year my sister Maria sent me an Italian Wedding Soup recipe she makes for her family. I never got around to making it, but I recently saw an Instagram reel from Dena Fenza and it reminded me I still needed to try it, so I tried Dena's recipe tonight, and it was incredible! Both of the recipes linked above are pretty similar in terms of the ingredients (although the amounts differ slightly), but Dena browns her meatballs on the stove and the other recipe bakes them in the oven.

This soup takes a little more time to prepare than other soups because of having to form the little meatballs, but it is well worth the effort! You can do some of the prep ahead of time - I chopped the veggies and made the meatball mixture in the early afternoon. I used a teaspoon measuring spoon to scoop the meat mixture so they would all be the same size. I counted about 75 mini meatballs! I refrigerated them on a plate until after I picked up my kids from school - that made it easy to start cooking as soon as I got home. I made it in my large wide round dutch oven so there was plenty of room to brown all the meatballs at once. I cooked my Acini Di Pepe separately so it wouldn't get too soft, which worked out well for my picky eater who only wanted broth and pasta.

The recipe below reflects any changes I made to the original. I thought the soup was perfect!

Italian Wedding Soup

Recipe Adapted from Micia Mammas Blog

 

Italian wedding soup is a kid friendly, easy and delicious soup that everyone will love. The soup is made up of broth, veggies, pasta and the star of the recipe is cute mini meatballs. It is a perfect soup for a cold winter day. 

 

This Neopolitan soup is originally called “minestra maritata”, which translates to “married soup” It is not served at Italian weddings but its meaning refers to how its flavors come together in a beautiful marriage!

 

Growing up this soup was a dish that my Grandpa made all the time.  I can still remember helping him roll the mini meatballs. He taught me to sear the meatballs first. It adds such great flavor to the soup. The smell of it just brings me right back to his kitchen. 

 

 

Meatballs:

½ pound ground pork

½ pound ground beef

¼ cup panko breadcrumbs

¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

¾ teaspoon garlic powder

3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 3 teaspoons dry parsley

¼ cup olive oil

 

Soup:

1 cup onion, diced

1 cup celery, diced

1 cup carrots, peeled and diced

64 ounces chicken broth

1½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

5 ounces baby spinach

1 pound Acini Di Pepe pasta

 

 

In a bowl, combine the pork and beef with the bread crumbs, Pecorino Romano, beaten egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder and chopped fresh parsley. Form into mini meatballs (about 1 teaspoon or less each).

 

In a soup pot over low/medium heat add ¼ cup of olive oil. Add in the meatballs, working in batches if you have to. Once browned on all sides (about 8 minutes), remove from the pan.  Repeat this process until all the meatballs are cooked and removed from the pan. This oil has great flavor but you will need to remove half of it from the pan or else the soup will be too greasy. Also, try to strain out most of the remaining brown bits from the pan.

 

Next, add in the onion, carrots and celery and cook on a low flame for about 10 minutes or until they become soft. Season with salt and the black pepper. Stir the mixture and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the meatballs back in and then add in the broth. Raise the temperature to low/medium and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes, making sure the veggies are cooked. Add the spinach and cook a few minutes longer, until the spinach wilts. Taste for seasoning and add salt or pepper if needed.

 

When there are about 15 minutes of cooking time left, cook your pasta and drain and put in a bowl.  You can add a small amount of olive oil to the pasta so that it does not stick together. I don’t like to cook the pasta in the soup because I find it becomes too soft. Serve the soup with the pasta and top with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

 

Serves 7.

Nonna's Famous Traditional Italian Meatballs (Polpette)

I love meatballs but I don't make them that often. A few months ago I came across this recipe which I've now made twice. The meatballs cook right in the sauce which means the recipe is very easy - even for a weeknight! I made a few changes to the recipe below to reflect what I did differently, but if you follow the link above you can see the original one. These are so delicious and best of all - my boys love them!

Nonna's Famous Traditional Italian Meatballs (Polpette)

Adapted from Cucina by Elena

 

These nutritious homemade meatballs are the perfect meal to make on a Sunday afternoon and freeze for weeks to come! This is another tried and true simple, flavorful and mouthwatering recipe from my Nonna. 

 

Polpette (Meatballs):

1 pound of 80-85% lean ground beef

2 slices of stale bread or ½ cup coarse bread crumbs

½ cup milk

½ cup parmigiano reggiano, finely grated

1 egg

3 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Sugo (Sauce):

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 whole onion

2 large cans (28 oz) good quality crushed tomatoes

Seasonings of choice (I use salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and garlic powder)

Red wine

5 fresh basil leaves, whole

 

 

Make Polpette:

Place bread and milk in a large mixing bowl and let sit for 2 minutes, until soft.

 

Add egg to bread and milk mixture and mix to combine.

 

Add ground beef, parsley, parmigiano, salt, and pepper. Mix WELL with your hands.

 

Take a spoonful of the meatball mixture and gently roll it between your hands to form 1½-inch meatballs. Set prepared meatballs on a cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap.

 

Make Sugo:

Pour extra-virgin olive oil into a dutch oven and brown the onion on medium heat. Add canned tomatoes, seasonings and red wine and simmer, 10-15 minutes.

 

Plunge your meatballs into the pot with the tomato sauce. Turn the heat to medium-low. Cook for 20 minutes or until meatballs are fully cooked in the center. Once finished cooking, add the basil and cover with a lid. Turn off the heat.

 

Cook your favorite pasta, gnocchi or polenta, as directed by the package, to serve with meatballs. Before you drain your pasta, add a little bit of the pasta water to your sauce. You can also eat without the pasta and serve it on yummy bread. Generously top with parmigiano and serve hot!

 

NOTES:

Make Meatballs Ahead of Time - I always make a double batch of the meatballs and freeze them for a busy weeknight.

To freeze meatballs: Place them on a baking sheet in one layer so they aren’t touching, and place them in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe container with a tight lid. Freeze for up to 2 months. Add frozen meatballs to the broth when ready to use and simmer until warm. You can also add them to homemade tomato sauce.

Easy Soft Italian No Knead Bread

One of my favorite recipe websites and Instagram pages to follow is Cucina by Elena. Her recipes all look so good and are authentic Italian. She always posts about this recipe she refers to as "Mom's bread" that she makes all the time, an Italian no knead bread that her mom taught her how to make. There is a video here of her making it.

She has various Instagram reels and posts with links to ingredients and tools she uses, but to simplify I'll link them below. Her mom recommends using a "bread box" to store all the ingredients so it's easy to just pull it out and mix the dough. The amount of the needed ingredients are written right on the containers as well, to make it even easier. Here are her links to:

• The actual box that she uses to store the containers in.
• The set of containers for the ingredients (she writes the amounts of ingredients needed on these).
• A scale to weigh the flour.
• A Mason Cash mixing bowl.
• The Food Nanny/NuQuest dough hook.
• Kamut flour.
• She usually bakes this as a round boule in a dutch oven, but she recently made it in her favorite stone loaf pan.

I don't find it necessary to buy these items, as all of my baking ingredients are in the same general area of my kitchen and I would have nowhere to store a bread box, but I wanted to link them for anyone who might want to do what she does. However, I did buy one of the Mason Cash mixing bowls in the Turquoise color - yes, from Home Depot, of all places. They give a 10% military discount and I had a gift card so it hardly cost me anything. It's big, lightweight, pretty and perfect for many recipes that I make. I also bought a dough hook because it looks perfect for mixing not only bread and focaccia dough, but also pancake, cake and muffin batter. I might try the Kamut flour at some point, but right now I will use what I already have - either King Arthur All-Purpose or Anna 00 flour.

She didn't link the steel cut oats or ground flaxseed that she uses, but I used Bob's Red Mill Organic for both of them. The ground flaxseed meal comes in both golden and regular - she says to use either one (I used golden so the color would blend into the bread more, in the hopes my picky eater would not notice!). I was able to find these at the commissary we shop at, and once I had them, I mixed a batch of dough that same night to bake in the morning.

For my first loaf, I baked it in a small round dutch oven. It was so delicious! My boys said "Mom's bread is the best bread!" after they first tried it. My dough came out pretty wet and did not look like hers does in the videos, so next time I will weigh my flour and see if it comes out more shaggy like it should. Other than that, it was very quick and easy to make and very good.

For my second loaf, I baked it in a new bread loaf baker that I recently bought. This was my first time using it - to avoid sticking, I used lightly floured parchment paper and it worked perfectly. This time around, I weighed my flour instead of measuring it in measuring cups and my dough was a lot easier to work with, so recommend doing that if you have a scale. I also used my new dough hook which made mixing very easy. After making it in both shapes, I definitely prefer the loaf pan. The bread again was very delicious.

If you enjoy homemade bread, give this recipe a try!

Easy Soft Italian No Knead Bread

Recipe from Cucina by Elena

 

The softest and most delicious homemade no-knead bread recipe. This bread has a few unique ingredients that separate it from hundreds of others. This will soon be your tried and true bread recipe! 

 

2¼ cups (500 ml) of warm water (might need a little more)

¼ teaspoon instant yeast or active dry yeast

¼ cup steel cut oats

¼ cup ground golden or regular flaxseed meal

4 cups (500grams) all-purpose flour (such as King Arthur brand), 00 flour, or Kamut flour

2 teaspoons of salt

 

 

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

 

Add the steel-cut oats and the flax meal and mix well (I use a fork to mix). Add flour and salt to the mix and incorporate well. Mix with a wooden spoon or dough hook for about 2-3 minutes.

 

The dough will be sticky and slightly wet. If it seems dry, you may need to add a little more water.

 

Cover the bowl with saran wrap and let it rise on the kitchen counter for at least 8 hours – up to overnight. The dough will double in size.

 

After the first rise, transfer the sticky dough to a floured surface and shape it into one large boule or two baguette-shaped logs*. Transfer onto floured parchment paper. Sprinkle with additional flour on top. Cover with a kitchen towel. **If using mix-ins, see NOTES.

 

Let rise again for 50-60 min (on the parchment paper covered with a towel).

 

With a sharp knife score the dough with 2 longitudinal cuts for each baguette OR 2 scores on top of the large round boule

 

Preheat oven to 450°. Meanwhile, place a 6-quart Dutch oven (or heavy cooking pot with oven-safe lid) in the oven as it preheats.

 

When the oven is preheated to 450°, take out the Dutch oven and place the baguettes or the large boule inside (with parchment paper). Place back in the oven to bake for 33 minutes with the lid ON. After 33 minutes, check if the top of the bread is golden brown. If you like it darker brown, take the lid off and cook an additional 6-10 minutes.

 

Put the bread on a cooling rack and let cool completely. Or, take a slice when still warm and enjoy.

 

Notes:

* To make in a loaf pan, grease and flour the pan (or use parchment paper). Splash the top with a little bit of water before baking it since it will not get the steam effect like the cast iron with lid. Bake at 400° for 35 minutes. It will make 1 large 9x5” loaf.

 

** Mix-Ins: If using mix ins 1) divide the dough in half 2) roll each dough on a floured surface into a rectangle. Sprinkle desired toppings evenly on the dough 3) fold the dough over on itself about four times 4) this will create two baguettes 4) continue to Step 7 in instructions.

Dough mixed at night

Dough fully risen the next morning

Shaped and put in a dutch oven to finish rising

Dough risen for another hour, scored and ready for the oven

After baking for 33 minutes with the lid on

After baking for an additional 8 minutes with the lid off

It smells amazing!

Delicious!

Ankarsrum Assistent Original

I've been making more pizza and bread dough lately and noticed my KitchenAid struggling a bit to knead it. When I was younger I made my grandmother's pizza dough by hand all the time, but once I moved out of my parent's house and no longer made a big batch using my grandmother's recipe, I started trying other smaller recipes that said to use a stand mixer to mix the dough. I had never even thought of that as an option before, but that is how I mix my dough now. I am usually only making pizza for my small family of 4, but occasionally make pizza for more people and have to make more than one batch of dough at a time in my KitchenAid. Most recently, I made 16 pizzas (4 recipes of Ooni pizza dough) on the 4th of July. It took me an hour, as it took about 15 minutes per batch to make and knead the dough in the mixer. I love my KitchenAid mixers and don't want to burn out the motor in either of them, so I started looking into what might be a better option. Of course, spiral mixers are the most obvious answer as the best mixer for pizza dough, but they are also huge, very heavy, and very expensive. I don't have a place to store one permanently, or want to spend that kind of money on a mixer that can really only do one thing (even if it does that one thing very well). It is overkill for my needs.

The other mixer that I kept coming across is called the Ankarsrum Assistent Original (Ankarsrum Original Kitchen Machine - formerly known as Verona, Magic Mill, Electrolux Assistent, DLX). It's a mixer that has been made in Sweden since 1940 and is very popular among bread bakers. You can read a little about the history of it here and here. Other than a few name changes over the years, little has changed from the original design. Unlike the KitchenAids, the motor is in the bottom of the mixer rather than overhead, and the bowl rotates. This leaves the bowl widely accessible from the top to easily add ingredients in and see the progress of the mixed batter or dough, which is very nice. It weighs less and since it's not top-heavy, it is easier to move. It comes with a 7-liter (7.4 quarts) stainless steel bowl, which is larger than both of my KitchenAids (I have a 6-quart bowl lift and a 5-quart tilt head). It also comes with a 7-year warranty, which is almost unheard of these days!

The mixer comes in 13 different colors (not as many options as KitchenAid offers, but still a good variety to choose from). I chose the color Royal Blue which has a matte finish. The only other blue option is Ocean Blue, but it has a very sparkly look to it which I don't like.

Royal Blue

The biggest complaint I've heard about this mixer is that there is a big learning curve. I have used KitchenAid mixers my whole life, so I imagined there would be a slight learning curve when moving to a new mixer that is this different, but I didn't think it would be impossible to use. I'm guessing that most people who have issues with this mixer either are not using it correctly, don't bake much to begin with, or don't have much patience. I've watched lots of videos and tutorials and it doesn't seem that difficult to use, but it is definitely very different from how the KitchenAid works. There are also some helpful tips on kneading dough. From what I've read, you have to always start with your liquids first in the mixer bowl, and salt should be added last (salt and yeast should not be added together). Oftentimes, you don't need as much flour as you would normally use when using a different mixer, so it's recommended not to mix other dry ingredients in the same bowl as your flour in case you don't use all of the flour.

The attachments are very different from the KitchenAid ones, so you have to learn how to use them. There is a dough roller and dough knife that can do every task. In fact, this is all the mixer came with when it was first sold, although they were made out of wood back then instead of plastic like they are now. Now they also include a dough hook, which was a later addition to this mixer once they started selling it in the USA. A lot of people don't seem to like or use their dough hook. The mixer also comes with a smaller plastic bowl, balloon whisks and cookie whisks that have plastic gears and look rather flimsy compared to the KitchenAid ones. You can purchase a stainless steel bowl that is the same size to use with the whisks, if you prefer to not use a plastic bowl. You also cannot use cold butter with the whisks because they and the plastic gears could break - you have to either use room temperature butter or cold butter that has been grated (not cut into chunks, for things like biscuits and pie dough). I plan to keep both of my KitchenAid mixers and continue using them for cookie dough, cakes, frosting, whipped cream, etc. so the smaller bowl and whisks don't matter as much to me, but I will probably try them out at some point. Most people say they use the roller and scraper for everything but whipping egg whites and whipped cream. One important thing to note when using either of the whisks is that they work faster than other mixers because there are two of them, so you should pay extra close attention to things that can easily get over whipped or over mixed. Another nice feature of this mixer is that the plug is removable from the machine.

7-liter stainless steel bowl with cover

Baking accessories for stainless steel bowl - dough roller, dough knife and spatula (included with mixer)

Dough hook for stainless steel bowl (included with the mixer)

Double beater set with 3.5-liter bowl (included with mixer)

Beater bowl in stainless steel (sold separately)

Another factor I considered that has annoyed me about my KitchenAids as I've gotten older is the sound of the mixer running. I developed Tinnitus (ringing in my ears) a few years ago, and certain sounds like a mixer running for 8-10 minutes (or much longer if making pasta!) make it worse. I read that the Ankarsrum is a lot quieter, which intrigued me, especially since I run my mixer the longest when mixing bread and pizza dough. Since the KitchenAid tends to "walk" (move on the countertop) as I'm making dough in it, I have to stay by the mixer which means that sound is right in my ear the entire time the dough is mixing. The Ankarsrum doesn't have that issue and won't move around, so you can go do other things while it is mixing or kneading dough. It also comes with a timer and will turn itself off once the timer runs out, which is pretty great!

Speaking of pasta, the Ankarsrum has a lot of optional accessories you can buy for it, including a pasta roller and a few different pasta cutters. It does not have nearly as many accessories as KitchenAid, but there are some interesting ones. Unlike the KitchenAid where you attach these to the top of the mixer, on the Ankarsrum, you turn the mixer on the side and attach them. It looks pretty odd in my opinion, but I've read that the attachments work very well. I'm not sure that I would buy any of them, as I plan to use this primarily for mixing bread and pizza dough, but the pasta roller does intrigue me since this mixer is not as loud as the KitchenAid. You can also easily buy spare or replacement parts.

Pasta Roller Attachment

Now, for the price. This mixer is not cheap. It is considerably less than a spiral mixer though. I have also heard of people who have owned this mixer for 20 or 30+ years and it is still like new. The motors don't burn out and they don't break the way KitchenAids do. These mixers also sell for the same price everywhere and seem to never go on sale. Luckily I found a company named The Bread Beckers that gives a 10% military discount and does not charge tax, so that is where I ordered mine from. I also earned $22.47 in "Bread Bucks" to use on a future order since I made an account on their website. The only other option I found to get one of these for a lower price (other than buying a used one, in which case there would be no warranty), is to buy a factory serviced machine, which is $124 less than a new one and comes with a 5-year warranty rather than a 7-year warranty.

I ordered this on July 9th and it arrived via UPS on July 12th. It was packaged very well (in a box inside a box inside a box - my kids were laughing at me opening 3 boxes before we got to the actual mixer). I'm happy with the pretty blue color I chose and the matte finish will help keep things looking clean. I washed everything right away so we could use it the next day. While washing the bowl I realized that one downside to the big stainless steel bowl that rotates is there is no handle on it, and I will definitely miss not having a handle because it really helps. On the other hand, using a bowl with a flat bottom will be really nice. Everything seems well-made and the included hardcover recipe book is a nice touch. Since this mixer is so different from anything I've ever used before, I read through the manuals and the tips in them, looked through the recipes and registered my mixer.

I initially thought this mixer was ugly, but it has grown on me, mostly because I have come to the sad realization that the KitchenAids are really not meant for making bread.

The day after I received this mixer I made a double recipe of Giada's pizza dough in it (using the large stainless steel bowl, roller and dough knife). The dough came out great and the pizza was delicious! I had never made this recipe in anything other than my KitchenAid before. I usually only make a double recipe but will be able to easily fit at least 4 recipes of this dough in this mixer!

I didn't intend to use this for baking other things like cookies and cakes, but I was curious how it compared to my KitchenAid, so the same day I made the pizza dough, I also made a pound cake (using the smaller clear plastic bowl and cookie beaters). It also came out great! The cake had a different consistency than I've ever gotten before from my KitchenAid mixer. It was really light and delicious. The next day I made two recipes (I made them separately, not in the bowl at once) of coffee cake, which also came out very well. It takes a little getting used to using a mixer bowl that is in the shape of a bundt pan, but I can confirm after using this bowl and these beaters three times that is does an excellent job with cake batter! If I continue to use it, I'll probably upgrade to the stainless steel beater bowl. It's nice using a clear bowl, but it is not the most sturdy material and I've heard some complaints of the plastic cracking.

So far I've also used this mixer to make Homemade French Bread, which came out delicious! I really love how open the bowl is which makes it easy to add more flour when the mixer is already running.

I'm excited to use this mixer for so many things. If you're an avid baker and are having some issues with your KitchenAid, I highly recommend switching to this mixer!