Italian Wedding Soup

So, my mom is currently in Italy getting married.  No, I’m not blogging from some chic Italian internet café, nor am I using the wi-fi in some international airport.  I’m still here in the ‘burbs of good ol U.S. of A.

You see, my mom didn’t invite me to her wedding.  And I didn’t exactly invite her to mine either, so fair is fair.  Love ya mom!

In all seriousness, I am absolutely thrilled about my mom’s new life.  She’s clearly very happy and her new husband is great.  I wanted to give them a gift in celebration of their vows.  

I asked my mom if she’d like the classic wedding gift of a gravy boat.  I was only half kidding, really, because I have distinct memories of there being an issue over Thanksgiving regarding her lack of a gravy boat.  But she must have blacked that incident out.  She declined my offer.  

I did get her this handsoap dispenser, though:

But, it cost me less than a dollar.  And it is second hand from a thrift store…so I thought I could do better.  I decided to make a recipe and blog it in her honor.  That’s right.  I’m spending even less money and she won’t even see this post until after the honeymoon, but I know she’ll appreciate it.  

And I might still get her that gravy boat for her birthday.

Italian Wedding Soup (adapted from Giada)

First, a word about Italian Wedding Soup.  I don’t know if I’ve ever truly eaten or not.  I thought that I had, but once I started searching recipes, I became convinced that I had not.  Some recipes called for beans, some called for tomatoes, others called for pasta.  Some were veggie loaded, others were not.  The only think that seemed consistent was the existence of the meatball in each recipe.  So, I wrote every recipe out on paper, folded them neatly, put them in a giant hat, and chose.  And this is what I got.  Yeah…  

Soup

6 cups vegetable broth

1 endive, sliced

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 large egg, whisked

parmesean cheese for topping

Meatballs (insert your favorite meatball recipe here, for myself, I used a seitan “wheat”ball recipe that I will blog at a later time, the omnivore in the house is partial to a general turkey meatball recipe by Giada)  

Method

Bring the broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Add endive and carrots and simmer until the vegetables tender. Whisk the egg in a medium bowl.  Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin strands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

   Mmm.  Pot o’ wheatballs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                              And a pot o’ meatballs for the omnivore.  He’s not gotten the courage to try the wheatballs…yet.

 

Well, actually, I chose this recipe because it called for a beaten egg to be incorporated into the broth.  Very interesting.

Okay, so I probably wouldn’t make this recipe again.  It wasn’t bad.  But it was bland.  The husband loved his meaty version, so maybe you omnivores lucked out with this recipe and the meatballs add additional flavor not added by my wheatballs :-/