Our Best Italian Wedding Soup Recipe

Right behind chicken noodle and classic, hearty tomato, Italian wedding soup is one of the first soups I remember loving as a kid. The itty bitty meatballs combined with tangy broth, silky greens, and tiny, tender pasta was culinary perfection in my eyes, and became my most frequent request during my family's weekly visits to the local Italian deli. At the time, I envisioned it as the soup Italians surely served at large, romantic weddings, thinking it must be a tradition to serve before the reception's main course. Like many, I was misled by the name, as the soup actually has nothing to do with weddings at all. 

While the soup does have origins in Italy, the original version looked a little different than what we know and love today. Originally called minestra maritata, or married soup, the dish was simply named for its combination (or marriage) of rustic ingredients. It also didn't include the famous tiny meatballs, which would have been considered too expensive at the time. The wedding soup as we know it today is distinctly Italian-American, but that doesn't make it any less great. Still one of my favorite soups today, I developed an easy recipe for making it from scratch with fresh spinach, salty Parmesan, acini de pepe, and yes –- tiny, beefy meatballs, which flavor the soup with a marriage of savory flavor.

To make the meatballs, you'll need ground beef, bread crumbs, milk, an egg, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil for searing. Save the rind of the Parmesan to use for the broth, which you'll be combining with onion, carrot, celery, garlic, Italian seasonings, chicken broth, and baby spinach. Lastly, seek out acini de pepe, which is a particularly small pasta that resembles quinoa or millet and is usually found near the orzo in the pasta aisle.

Begin the meatballs: Combine the milk and breadcrumbs in a bowl. Let the milk soak into the breadcrumbs until the crumbs are paste-like, about 5 minutes.

Add all meatball ingredients but the oil to the bowl. Use your hands to mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.

Roll the mixture into ¾-inch meatballs, placing them on a parchment-lined baking sheet as you go.

Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.

Add the meatballs and sear on each side until browned, about 5 minutes total, working in batches as needed. (Note: The meatballs will not be cooked all the way through.)

Remove the meatballs from the pot and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir.

Add the Italian seasoning, Parmesan rind, salt, pepper, and chicken broth to the pot. Return the meatballs to the pot.

Bring the soup to a boil, then add the acini de pepe and stir. Boil until meatballs are cooked through and pasta is al dente, about 10 minutes.

Remove the Parmesan rind and add the spinach. Stir until spinach is wilted and bright green, about 1 minute.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with extra grated Parmesan.

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There are a lot of different ways to cook the meatballs in Italian wedding soup, and they don't necessarily have to be seared in the pot first. This method delivers more flavor to the vegetables and resulting broth, which soak up the meaty flavor left behind by the searing beef. However, you can also cook the meatballs on a sheet tray in the oven to save some time (this allows you to cook the vegetables while the meatballs brown) or you can boil them directly in the broth without searing first.

To cook the meatballs in the oven, preheat the oven to 400 F and arrange the meatballs on a parchment-lined sheet tray. Cook for 10 minutes, or just enough to brown the meatballs. Then, add the meatballs to the simmering broth and continue with the recipe as written. To boil the meatballs, which produces a soft, tender ball without a brown crust, follow the recipe as written but bring the broth to a soft simmer, not a rolling boil. Add the meatballs and cook gently for 20 minutes before bringing to a boil and adding the pasta.

Acini de pepe is a small, grain-like pasta that resembles quinoa but cooks and tastes chewy like a noodle. When boiled, the texture of the pasta is satisfying and tender, similar in texture to adding rice to soup. It's distinctive to Italian wedding soup and contributes to its classic appeal, but can be swapped for other pastas in a pinch.

If you can't find acini de pepe, you can swap for orzo, which has a slightly larger size but similar silky texture to acini de pepe. You can also use a pasta called ditalini, which is a short, tubular pasta shape perfect for using in soups. There are also other micro pastas you can use, such as pastina (or stelline), which is the star-shaped version of acini de pepe. You can also use pearl couscous in a pinch, which has a similar shape and texture to acini de pepe but with a little more chew. Avoid large pastas here –- the pasta is meant to fit on the same spoon as the meatballs and broth, so keep the pasta smaller than the meatballs.

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