Italian Wedding Soup

We both like Italian Wedding Soup but have never made it before, so we figured, why not try it now?  It seems light enough to enjoy in the summer, and we found a recipe that looks great in a cookbook we both have - Gourmet Today, edited by Ruth Reichl.  This is the cookbook that gave us the absolutely amazing Spicy African Chicken and Peanut Soup recipe, so I have a feeling this soup will be pretty good.

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP, from Gourmet Today edited by Ruth Reichl (page 147)

For stock:

1 (3 1/2) pound chicken, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into 8 pieces

2 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch lengths

2 carrots, quartered

1 large onion, left unpeeled, trimmed and halved

2 garlic cloves

6 fresh parsley stems, without leaves

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

4 quarts cold water

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

For meatballs:

1 cup 1/4-inch pieces Italian bread

1 cup whole milk

1 pound meat loaf mix (equal parts ground beef, pork, and veal)

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup finely grated pecorino Romano

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

About 2 cups vegetable oil

For soup:

5 cups water

1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

3 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 (3-by-2-inch) piece pecorino Romano rind

1 medium head escarole, tough stems discarded, leaves chopped (about 5 cups)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make the stock: Combine all ingredients in an 8- to 10-quart pot and bring to a boil; skim froth.  Reduce heat and simmer gently, uncovered, skimming froth occasionally, for 2 hours.  Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, form and fry the meatballs: Stir together bread and milk in a large bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.  Add meat, garlic, eggs, cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper and blend with your hands just until well combined (do not overmix).  Form scant tablespoons into meatballs; you will have about 60 meatballs.

Heat 1 inch oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.  Cook meatballs in 3 batches, turning occasionally, until well browned and cooked through, about 6 minutes per batch.  Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Make the soup: Remove chicken from pot and pour stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl; discard solids.  Skim off and discard fat.  You should have about 3 quarts stock; if you have less, add enough water to make 3 quarts.

When chicken is cool enough to handle, discard skin and bones and coarsely shred enough chicken into bite-sized pieces to measure about 3 cups (reserve remaining chicken fro another use).

Return stock to cleaned pot and add 5 cups water.  Add onion, carrots, celery, and cheese rind and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 15 minutes.  Stir in escarole, cover, and bring to a boil.  Add meatballs and simmer, uncovered, until escarole is very tender, about 10 minutes.  Discard cheese rind, stir in shredded chicken, and season with salt and pepper.  Serve with grated cheese.

ANN'S VERSION

Making a good chicken stock from scratch is time-consuming but in this case it was totally worth it.  I used a really nice organic 3-1/2 lb. chicken and parsley and bay leaves from my garden, and for once I was diligent about skimming the scum when it first came to a boil.  The simmering took 2 hours and at the end I had both a delicious stock and nice poached chicken.  While the stock simmered I made the meatballs using half ground beef and half ground pork since I don't approve of veal on ethical grounds.  The mixture was quite loose and I made the first batch of meatballs a little too large, but they held together and were absolutely delicious.  I made the last two batches quite a bit smaller and they do cook a lot quicker than the recipe says so be watchful!  Next time I think I'll refrigerate the meatballs for an hour or so between forming and frying and they should be rounder and prettier, but the flavor and texture were wonderful.

There was no escarole at the grocery so I substituted 7 c. of dino kale which had a slight bitterness and chewy texture similar to the escarole.  I used a parmesan rind instead of romano.  I shredded all the poached chicken meat to make about 4 c.  This makes a LOT of soup!  We ate it for supper, I put 1-1/2 qts. in the refrigerator, and there were still 4 qts. for the freezer.  I highly recommend this soup and will make it again.  You could certainly make it with good quality commercial stock and just poach some chicken breasts for the meat, but I wouldn't change anything about the meatballs as they are the stars of the dish!

CASSIE'S VERSION

I forgot to write about this soup after making it (which was quite some time ago now!).  It was absolutely delicious!  The meatballs I made were so very good, but also quite rich.  Due to a strange bout of grocery shopping, I found myself with almond milk and heavy cream, but no regular cow's milk... so I used a combination of these two things.  I also made them out of pork only, because I also don't buy veal and didn't feel like using only half a package of ground meat.  As a result, these were incredibly rich meatballs but that worked out okay because the rest of the soup wasn't too heavy.  And they were incredibly delicious!

Other than these changes, I believe I followed the recipe fairly closely.  I didn't use a whole chicken, but rather just chicken thighs.  This was because every chicken I encountered was at least double the required 3.5 pounds.  Why are the chickens of New England so large?!?  I was happy to find escarole, which proved to be a delicious green in this soup.

Once again, a winning recipe from Ruth Reichl's Gourmet Today!  I can't wait to try another...