WEDDING SOUP WITH STRACCIATELLA

Wedding soup is a favorite of mine. I love to play with the ingredients, making the meatballs with ground chicken or beef or turkey or sausage. For greens I prefer spinach, though I've used escarole at times. And for pasta, sometimes I'm in an acine de pepe mood and other times only orzo will do. But what I've never done until now is combined wedding soup with stracciatella, which is an Italian egg drop soup. I decided to "marry" these two favorites--sorry, I couldn't help myself--with excellent results.

Serves 2-3

 Meatballs

1 slice white bread, crust removed

1/4 cup milk

garlic clove, minced

6 oz ground turkey

1 tbs olive oil

1 egg yolk

2 tsp fresh parsley, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Soup

4 cups chicken broth

2 oz orzo

1/2 pkg. fresh baby spinach

1 egg

1 tbs water

2 tbs grated Parmigiano

2 tbs fresh chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Place the bread in a bowl and pour the milk over it. Let it soak for 5 minutes. While the bread soaks, saute the garlic in the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic in oil, the ground turkey, the egg yolk, the parsley, and salt and pepper to the bowl. Use a fork to gently mix together--the less you handle the meat, the lighter the meatballs will be. Divide mixture into 12 equal parts and form into balls.

Bring broth to a simmer and gently drop in the meatballs. Simmer 5-10 minutes, just until cooked through. Remove from the broth with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Return the broth to a boil and add the orzo. Cook for 10 minutes. When orzo is almost done, add the spinach and return the meatballs to the soup. Add parsley. 

Break the egg into a small bowl, add the water, and stir briefly. Stir in the grated cheese. Quickly stir the soup, then drizzle in this egg-cheese mixture slowly so that the heat of the soup will quickly form the mixture into cooked strands.

*************************************************

TASTE NOTES

Combining these two favorites was a good call. The broth was enriched by the egg-cheese mixture and the added protein turned a light supper into a filling one. Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks.