Italian Wedding Soup

This week's soup is Italian Wedding Soup. I stumbled across this soup on the shelves of the grocery store a few years ago. I bought it thinking I was trying something tied to an Italian wedding tradition. I loved the soup-even from a can-but I've since found out that the name has nothing to do with a wedding per se. The term "wedding soup" is a mistranslation of the Italian language, minestra maritata, which refers not to the marriage of man/wife but the "marriage" of green vegetables and meat.

Tying in with my February theme of Food Network Recipes, this is a Giada De Laurentiis recipe. Her original recipe is here, I cut down the ingredients to serve 4-6 and made a few substitutions based on recipe feedback.

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes

Meatballs:
1/2 small onion, grated
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large egg
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
4 ounces ground beef
4 ounces ground Italian pork sausage
Freshly ground black pepper

Soup:
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 c. dry Acini de Pepe pasta (cook separately)
1 1/2 cups kale coarsely chopped (escarole, endive or even spinach would be a good substitution)
1 large egg (I actually used 1/2)
2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
Freshly ground black pepper

To make the meatballs:
Stir the first 5 meatball ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese, beef and pork sausage. Using 1 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs. Place off to the side.

To make the soup:
Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, about 8 minutes. Add kale and cooked Acini de Pepe pasta and simmer a few minute more until kale is tender. Whisk the egg and cheese in a medium bowl to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin stands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with pepper.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Finish soup with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Notes:
1. Here's what the box of Acini de Pepe pasta looks like:
2. You can also see what it looks like once it's been cooked and added to the soup:
3. I added about 1 1/2 tsp. dry soup base/bouillon to the broth to pump up the flavor.
4. Check out the recipe reviews to see other suggestions.
5. This isn't a "pretty" soup but is very good and filling. Both DH and I thought the meatballs were amazing and would like to try the meatball recipe with spaghetti.