🇮🇹 Italy and 🇺🇸 United States · Campania (Naples) for the Italian original; Italian-American for the meatball form
Italian wedding soup
A broth soup of greens and meat. The American form combines small meatballs, escarole or other greens, and tiny pasta in chicken broth; the Neapolitan minestra maritata is a heavier soup of mixed greens with pork.
Origin and history
The name is a mistranslation of the Italian minestra maritata, 'married soup', which refers to the pairing of meat and greens, not to weddings. Minestra maritata is an old peasant soup of Naples and Campania, eaten in winter and at Christmas. Southern Italian immigrants brought it to the United States, where it became a lighter soup of chicken broth, tiny meatballs, escarole and small pasta, now a staple of Italian-American restaurants and diners.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 2 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 45 min
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg3.3 lb chicken wings, backs or a small stewing hen, for the broth
- 3.5 L3 3/4 qt cold water
- 1 onion, halved, studded with 2 cloves
- 2 carrots, in chunks
- 2 celery stalks with leaves, in chunks
- 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley stems, a bay leaf and a sprig of thyme
- 1 piece Parmigiano-Reggiano rind, optional
- 40 g3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs from crustless day-old bread, for the meatballs
- 3 tbsp milk
- 350 g12 oz ground meat: half beef and half pork (or beef and veal)
- 1 egg
- 40 g1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more to serve
- 1 garlic clove, grated or very finely minced
- 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1 head (about 450 g)1 head (about 1 lb) escarole (scarola), washed well, cut in 2 cm (3/4 in) ribbons
- 100 g3.5 oz (1/2 cup) acini di pepe or other tiny soup pasta (orzo, stelline)
- salt and black pepper, to taste
Method
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1. Put the chicken, water, onion, carrots, celery, herbs and cheese rind in a large pot and bring slowly to the boil, skimming off the foam.
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2. Lower the heat so the surface barely trembles, cover partly and simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes.
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3. Meanwhile, soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 5 minutes, then mix them with the ground meat, egg, grated cheese, garlic, parsley, 3/4 tsp salt and some pepper, working the mixture lightly with your hands.
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4. With wet hands, roll the mixture into small meatballs about 2 cm (3/4 in) across, the size of a large marble; you should have 50–60. Chill them on a tray while the broth finishes.
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5. Strain the broth, pressing on the vegetables; pull the meat off the chicken in shreds if you like and set it aside. You need about 2.5 L (2 1/2 qt) of broth; season it with salt.
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6. Bring the broth back to a gentle boil and drop in the meatballs; simmer for 8–10 minutes, until they float and are cooked through.
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7. Add the pasta and cook for 5 minutes.
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8. Add the escarole and cook 3–5 minutes more, until it is silky and the pasta is tender.
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9. Return any shredded chicken, check the seasoning, and serve at once, with grated cheese at the table.
Notes
- Total time: 2 h 15 min (with homemade broth); 50 min with ready-made broth.
- This is the Italian-American wedding soup, popular across the United States and especially in the Italian communities of Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Families vary it: chicken or turkey meatballs, spinach, endive, kale or chard instead of escarole, diced carrots and celery left in the soup, or a beaten egg and grated cheese drizzled into the boiling broth at the end so it sets in strands.
- Its Neapolitan ancestor, minestra maritata, is a much heavier winter soup, traditionally eaten at Christmas and on Santo Stefano: a long-simmered broth of several meats (beef, pork, hen, sometimes a ham bone or pork rind) with a mixture of bitter greens such as escarole, chicory, cabbage and broccoli rabe, with the meat cut up rather than shaped into meatballs and usually no pasta. Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia version keeps the escarole and veal meatballs and makes pasta optional; Lidia Bastianich's version uses sausage meatballs in a vegetable broth with chard, fennel and zucchini.
- Browning the meatballs in the oven at 180 °C (350 °F) for 15–20 minutes before adding them gives a deeper flavour; poaching them straight in the broth, as here, keeps them tender.
- If you plan to keep leftovers, cook the pasta separately and add it to each bowl: it keeps absorbing broth and turns soft. The broth and raw meatballs can be made 2 days ahead; the meatballs also freeze well.
Adapted from Mary Ann Esposito, Ciao Italia: Wedding Soup / Zuppa di Nozze and Lidia Bastianich: Wedding Soup.
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in United States.
Earlier editions
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January 25, 2025
🇺🇸 Amsterdam, New York, United States
7th Annual SoupFest
On the menu as Italian Wedding Soup (gluten-free)
By Anthony's Deli