Italian Wedding Soup

I first ate Italian Wedding Soup at a scruffy-looking restaurant in Vancouver and I was instantly hooked. I love it when an unassuming restaurant produces amazing food. Although it’s called soup it’s hearty like a stew so it’s great for a weekday meal. Traditionally the pasta is  Acini de pepe but you can use any small pasta like orzo or Garofalo Pepe Bucato. The stock you use changes the flavour of the whole dish so use the best stock you can make or buy.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2 Adults & 2 Kids
The Meatballs
250g ground beef
250g ground pork
40g breadcrumbs
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1 large egg
20g grated parmesan
2 tbsp olive oil
The Soup
200g orzo
2 sticks of celery
2 carrots
1 small or 1/2 large onion
125ml white wine
80g washed baby spinach
1 litre vegetable stock
30g parmesan

• Peel the onion and carrots and trim the ends off the celery stalks then chop into small pieces.
• Put all the meatball ingredients in a bowl and mix together using your hands. Put a large skillet on a medium high heat and add two tablespoons of olive oil.
• Roll small meatballs, at least 24, and add to the pan. Shake the pan regularly until the meatballs are browned all over then transfer to a bowl using a slotted spoon.
• Add the chopped carrots, onion and celery to the pan and sprinkle over 1/4 tsp of salt. Stir the veg regularly while it cooks for 5 minutes on a medium high heat then add the white wine and cook for another minute to evaporate the alcohol.
• Bring 1 litre of salted water to the boil in a saucepan. Simultaneously add the pasta to the boiling salted water and pour the stock over the vegetables. Cook the pasta for 5 minutes then drain and add to the veggies and stock then cook for another 5 minutes.
• Add the meatballs back to the pan and turn down the heat to medium then cook for another 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook for 1 minute then serve and grate over with parmesan.