Soup of the Week – Italian Wedding Soup Redux

Know what I did last week?

I made Italian wedding soup – spur of the moment and without having to hit the grocery store or break a sweat. I even had homemade chicken broth at the ready just waiting to be put to use! (More on that homemade broth stuff later.)

It was Tuesday night, I think. Yes – we had a snow day (again). I had no menu plan in place, people needed to be fed, but nobody was hungry enough to have an opinion. It was cold (surprise, surprise) and we wanted something comforting, but not heavy. I wish I could tell you what my thought process was or why we ended up with this one, but I can’t. I honestly have no idea, but a few short minutes after I hit the Internet for some inspiration, I was on Food Network’s website looking at an Italian wedding soup recipe, courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis. It said total prep time was 35 minutes. Really? Including meatballs? That did it for me!

I know. I’ve given you Italian wedding soup before back in Soup of the Week – Bridal Edition. (Go ahead – check it out. There’s a good story there.)  But last week’s recipe was just a little bit different from any Italian wedding soup I’ve ever had – no little pasta in it but rather a combination of egg and parmesan cheese drizzled in at the end. It looks like lace, by the way, which has much to do with weddings. Maybe that’s why.

The Fab Hub, wanting to impress with his culinary knowledge, compared it to the egg drizzled into hot and sour soup. I am so happy when he tosses kitchen language around. This is a guy whose bachelorhood kitchen skills included takeout, boxed macaroni and cheese, and – his specialty – oregano teriyaki chicken. (We’ll talk about that later.) But now, after all these years of claiming ineptitude in the kitchen, he knows stuff! It warms my heart.

And this soup will warm your belly and your soul…

I wasn’t in the mood for anything complicated, so I followed the recipe as-is with only two exceptions. I subbed in ground turkey breast for the ground beef/ground pork combo and I used curly kale in place of curly endive.

Served with crusty bread and butter, this was a light yet hearty enough dinner for a cold winter evening. We all loved it and Kidzilla and the Fab Hub enjoyed it happily for subsequent meals. The leftovers kept splendidly in the refrigerator all week. Have to tell you I really liked the kale in this – and I hate wilty greens in my soup. Even in the last bowl on Saturday afternoon, the kale still had some strength to it and was not wilty or slimy in the least.

That said, with the soup tureen empty it’s time to think about this week’s soup. I think next up will be something tomato-based like a red wine and lentil soup suggested by Tammy at Grown Up, Now What?

Until then, what soups have you been enjoying this winter? What meals have you tossed together on the spur of the moment and just from ingredients already in your kitchen?