It’s amazing, really.  I don’t often much care for meatballs, and I’m not big into pasta as a general rule.  Yet when you put meatballs and pasta into a soup with chicken broth, it’s one of my favorite things ever.

I’ve long been afraid of Italian Wedding soup for really no good reason, but now that I’ve more or less figured it out, I’m not nearly as reluctant to throw a pot on and have me a soup party.

The goods:

1o oz ground turkey (about half of 1 package)

1 egg, beaten

handful of bread crumbs

handful of grated parmesan cheese

1 medium onion, diced fine

dried oregano, dried thyme, salt and pepper

2 quarts chicken stock

1 handful baby carrots, diced

2 or 3 stalks of celery, diced

2ish Tablespoons minced garlic

3ish cups chopped baby spinach (just grab like 3 big handfuls and chop those up, no real need to be all exact)

1 cup pasta pearls or alphabet pasta (guess which one I used? =))

extra virgin olive oil

The method:

-Mix ground turkey, half of the onion, the egg, breadcrumbs and parmesan together.  Add a couple pinches each of salt, pepper, oregano and thyme.  You can either roll them into little meatballs (I was aiming for like 3/4-inch little meaty bites) now or set them aside for a few while you get the soup started.

– drizzle olive oil a couple times around your favorite big stockpot set to medium high.

– add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic, saute until translucent.

– add chicken broth, bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer.

– add your meatballs.  If you haven’t made them yet, you can roll them and drop them right into the simmering soup.

– Add your chopped spinach and pasta, as well as several pinches of oregano and thyme.  Stir every now and again to make sure nothing’s stuck to the bottom of the pot.  Simmer 10ish minutes or until meatballs are cooked and pasta is tender. (I simmered mine for like 1/2 an hour because I really wanted the flavors to blend nicely, I just kept it on the lowest heat I could and have it still be bubbling, and I added more water when it looked like too much was evaporationg away)

– Add salt and pepper to taste.

This would be great with a light green salad; I served it with some turkey meatloaf and sauteed greens.