Soup of the Week – Bridal Edition

It is time once again for Soup of the Week!

I know, I know…the last edition of Soup of the Week was way more than a week ago. There was this little inconvenience called Super-Obnoxious-Storm Sandy in there so we were without power for a few days. Then there was the week of dealing with the aftermath of catching up on all the things that didn’t get finished during Sandy week. And there was the little matter of some big deadlines at the day job to deal with – working around the power outage issue, of course. But what really matters is that life is back to whatever normal is…just in time to disrupt it with the start of the holiday season!

I did get a few Soups of the Week in since the last edition. They were mostly repeats of ones I’ve already posted like Portuguese Chicken Lemon Mint soup and Butternut Squash Soup (the chicken sausage version and one that adds apple for an interesting sweetness).  Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons is also a favorite, but I didn’t really want to run them again, even though they were all well worth eating again.

This week we went with Food Network Magazine’s Italian Wedding Soup from the January/February 2012 issue. We’ve had this one before and liked it quite a bit. Buuuuut…there was a little misunderstanding about what to do with the parmesan rinds and it ended up super-thick – and not really in a good way. The taste, though, was fantastic. This time around I used the right amount (that would be one parmesan rind, not one container of rinds) and it was perfect.

Why Italian Wedding Soup? Well, I ended up engaged in a conversation about weddings this afternoon because someone asked me what I will be doing on Black Friday.  My usual answer is “staying in my house relaxing and laughing at all the crazy people who like to shop on Black Friday.” But this year, I will indeed venture out on Black Friday, not for Christmas shopping sales, but for something much better. This Friday, I will be helping the Super Sister shop for her wedding gown.

(Aack – and there it is…just got a little teary for the first time about this wedding. And I do not get teary about weddings. Ugh.)

Super Sister is fourteen years my junior and so we have a strange combination bond of sisters, babysitter and charge, extra mom-ish person and kid, and now friends and colleagues. Much as I do with Zilla when I realize she is growing up way too fast, I find myself thinking “how the hell did that happen?” Just six months ago, Super Sister was sitting in my Mom’s kitchen getting her hair done for her first dance recital. They wanted the little girls to wear their hair in a bun, but Baby Sister didn’t have quite enough to make it work. Somehow, we managed a faker job with a ponytail and a lot of hairspray.

In addition to discussing wedding gown shopping, someone asked what food Fab Hub and I had at our wedding. As I recall, one of the things we had was Italian Wedding Soup.

So…

wedding dress + wedding food = Italian wedding soup for soup of the week

How’s that for new math?

This was really a perfect soup for tonight because Zilla, Fab Hub, and I are all congested and cranky. Nobody is actually sick, but none of us is actually feeling overwhelmingly terrific, either. That kind of nonsense calls for something warm and comforting.

Did I modify this a bit? Does David Tutera dress thematically appropriate for every wedding he re-organizes on My Fair Wedding? You betcha.

• We used ground beef instead of pork for the meatballs because we are just not big pork eaters. It worked just as well. But go for pork if you like it, or veal, or a mix – whatever floats your meatball.
• Based on how the recipe worked last time I made it and the handful of reviews on the Food Network recipe site, we did add some salt and pepper and used a bit more Worcestershire than it called for. It is a little on the bland side if you follow the recipe precisely as written. You could also toss in a little bit of crushed red pepper flakes or some red pepper sauce for some zip. A few squeezes of lemon juice would be good, too, if you enjoy that flavor. Or try both if you’re feeling daring.
• We used far less than the amount of spinach recommended. While we have no problem with the spinach in here, none of us cares too much for wilted greens in cooking and it just seemed like an awful lot for our taste. We probably used about half as much as was called for and Fab Hub proclaimed that it was perfect. As a side note, Fab Hub picked up some of the greenest, freshest baby spinach I’ve ever seen when he did the store run this afternoon. Beautiful.

Serve that with a side of crusty bread and some fruit (or a salad) and you have yourself a  hearty little supper. We were all more than satisfied with one generous helping. Because I wanted there to be plenty left over, we doubled the recipe. As a result, I have a nice-sized plastic-ware in the refrigerator holding leftovers and froze eight single-serving containers for packing lunches.

I absolutely forgot to take a picture, despite the fact that the soup looked very pretty in a set of bowls given to us as a wedding gift. We almost never use them, but I had weddings on the brain and remembered them when it was time to serve. They have a very cool matching tureen to go with them, so perhaps we will break them out more regularly as we continue our Soup of the Week adventures.

It’s not nearly as attractive as the dinner setting was, but I grabbed a shot of my midnight snack just to tempt you a little…

This soup was a great choice tonight for dinner and even better several hours later for a snack. Like a good marriage, time provides opportunity for the different flavors to combine and deepen, leaving a richer, more delicious version of the original.

Enjoy!