Italian Wedding Soup: New Age: Will Make Your Mouth Water

Classic Italian meatball and spinach wedding soup meets chicken egg dumpling soup in this new age medley of deliciously familiar flavors. Two soups in one. 

If Italian wedding soup and chicken and egg dumpling soup were to have sexy time, I’m confident this would be their spectacular delicious oopsie. A medley of Italian and Pennsylvania Dutch heritage in one bowl.

Italian Wedding Soup is a staple recipe in the Mahoning Valley, Trumbull County, and general northeastern Ohio area among the Italian-American population.

It has nothing to do with weddings as the name might imply. It actually is the marriage of meat and vegetables that the soup derived its name.

Before I get into the soup recipe, I feel it is important to give the history and backstory of this soup recipe. It’s important to me to pass down family recipes and talk about my roots and heritage. Otherwise, how will my kids and grandkids pass on what was passed down or over to me?

I was born in Steubenville, Ohio in 1967. My father was a line cook at the Fort Steuben Hotel who worked his way up from a dishwasher. He probably became employed there sometime between ages 16-18 years old. He had no formal culinary training other than on the job.

My dad was a high school drop out who went to work to support himself. He later supported a family of eight on a meager chef’s salary. He remained a chef during most of his working career.

When I was two years old my parents moved my two older sisters, me, and our younger brother to the Mahoning Valley. They later added two more sisters to our brood.

We settled in Austintown, Ohio where my dad landed a job as a chef at Tippecanoe Country Club in Canfield, Ohio.

He worked there for a while before going to work at Strouss’ Department Store in downtown Youngstown in the Western Reserve Dining Room on the fourth floor. Strouss’ had six floors.

Wow. Looking at that photo brings back a few memories. I remember our dad taking us kids to a breakfast with Santa at the restaurant. What little memories I have of this place was that walkway and the breakfast with Santa.

The building is owned by the city to this day and a proposal to resurrect the building as a new food market was recently talked about at a city council meeting. It sounds exciting and I’m all for it.

It is important to preserve history and I’m proud to say that my father once walked the floors of that historical building daily, cooking and feeding customers and the hard workers of downtown Youngstown.

From there he worked at The Colonial House Restaurant on Market St. in Uptown Youngstown as the head chef for several years. Back int he day, it’s where the elite ate.

Man, I remember that dining room. I still have dreams from time to time of standing in that dining room.

My dad had told us kids that the house used to be an old funeral home and that he had a few haunted encounters there. I never knew my dad to be a liar so I’ll take his word on it.

My dad passed away of lung cancer in 2011 at age 69. He wasn’t even a smoker. I miss him a lot but glad I have these memories to keep his spirit alive.

When I was 20 I moved away to nearby Niles, Ohio. That’s where I married and raised my son and daughter.

Most of that area had a large Italian-American base who were descendants of immigrants who settled there to work in the steel mills and railroad industry. Many of them had their own brick and mortar businesses and Mom & Pop shops.

My ex husband came from a large Italian family. We were always eating family meals in my in-law’s basement where they had another makeshift kitchen. That was the first time I had seen a kitchen in a basement. It was nothing fancy trust me.

We ate in the basement mostly on holidays and Sundays around long folding tables and chairs. After Catholic mass, Sunday sauce and meatballs were served with a side of fresh baked local D’Urso Italian bread and if you were lucky some hot peppers in oil fresh out of the garden. It was kind of a huge deal.

The D’Urso’s are so old school they still don’t have a website for their bakery or I would link it. They were also our neighbors and our daughters grew up close and graduated together.

On holidays, like Easter and Christmas my mother in law would make a gigantic pot of wedding soup. But after one bite, I was hooked.

My older cousin from Steubenville used to make wedding soup and I remember her hand rolling the tiny meatballs but not sure I ever remember eating the actual soup. She also married an Italian.

So you see, since there was a large Italian population in Niles, Ohio and overall northeastern Ohio area, it was only a matter of time before I was introduced to it and learned how to cook Italian wedding soup the Italian way. My sister in law was the one who taught me how to make wedding soup.

I remember one particular time I made it, we were living in our house we built on Four Winds Court in Niles. My son’s best friend who lived a couple of houses down the street came over and had dinner at our house. I sent him home with a little container of leftovers.

The next day I was walking past my neighbor’s house and little Dave’s dad, Big Dave, called me up to his garage. He said to me “I got up last night starving and saw that wedding soup in the fridge and ate it. It was so good. I drank it straight out of the bowl. You gotta give the recipe to Diane.”

It’s weird because since I moved here to Florida from Ohio in 2006 I haven’t made it since. I sure do remember how to make it though.

This was probably the best wedding soup I’ve ever made to date.

In my last post I made homemade chicken stock and made it specifically with this soup in mind.

Winter is on our heels. That means it’s soup and stew season, and you’ll want this version of Italian wedding soup in your soup arsenal. Trust me.

Mr. Kitchen Prescription has never had Italian wedding soup. I mean are you kidding me?

And since wedding soup has some form of croutons, pasta or lentils in it, I thought I would make an old fashioned egg dumpling instead.

Back in the day I used to make an egg, parmesan cheese, and cracker meal crouton for the soup. It kinda looked like a sponge after it was baked and cubed.

I never measured anything but I remember adding about 8 eggs, a handful of grated parmesan cheese, probably about a cup of cracker meal, fresh chopped parsley, salt & pepper to taste.

I would mix that up with a fork, pour it in a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven at 350° F until a toothpick comes out clean in the center. Let it cool in the pan, cut into cubes, and put in soup at very end.

Growing up, my mom called egg dumplings “rubs.” I have no idea why…sort of, but I did a whole other post about that here. She would make a delicious pot roast and add the dumplings to the gravy.

It was the best thing ever and I could eat it by the bucket loads. So what better way to give this Italian wedding soup a twist of Pennsylvania Dutch than to add some “rubs.”

If you didn’t read the above post about “rubs,” you’ll be glad to know that they are actually called rivels.

This soup also has tiny meatballs, chicken, carrots, onion, celery and some greens in it. Baby spinach is a nice addition and really brightens the soup.

I could go on and on about how good I think this soup is, but you really should try it for yourself. Yes, it involves a bit of work but I promise it is worth the effort.

Ya’ll know some of you are on lockdown again. We all have a bit of extra time on our hands these days so why not put it to good use.

New Age Italian Wedding Soup:

Italian Wedding Soup

December 9, 2020

by Sherri

Category Soups/Stews/Crock pot

Persons

6

Serving Size

1 Bowl

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

3 hours

Total Time

4 hours

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion finely diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 4-5 carrots peeled and sliced
• Bag of baby spinach
• 3 Tablespoons chopped parsley (plus more for garnish)
• 2 Tablespoons of butter
• 1 Tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
• Pinch of Cinnamon
• 2 cooked and shredded chicken breasts
• 50-60 tiny meatballs
• 8 to 10 cups chicken stock/broth
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• FOR THE MEATBALLS:
• 8 oz. ground beef (80/20 blend)
• 8 oz. ground pork
• 1 whole egg
• 2 Tablespoons finely chopped yellow onion
• 1 small minced garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon chopped oregano
• 1 Tablespoon fresh grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup plain panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• FOR THE EGG DUMPLINGS/RIVELS:
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour + 1/4 cup flour reserved
• Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Prepare meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with clean hands
3. Roll tiny meatballs (about an inch in diameter) and place on baking sheet lined with tin foil or parchment paper
4. Bake meatballs about 15 minutes or until the middle is no longer pink
5. Drain meatballs in a bowl lined with a paper towel and set aside.
6. In large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add a tablespoon of olive oil
7. When fat is ready it will bubble around a tip of a wooden spoon, drop in chopped onion, carrots, and celery and sauté until onions are translucent and fragrant.
8. Add 8-10 cups of chicken stock
9. Add shredded chicken and tiny meatballs
10. Salt and pepper to taste
11. Add chopped parsley
12. Add a pinch of cinnamon (no more than 1/8 teaspoon)
13. Bring to a low rolling boil then reduce heat to a low medium simmer
14. Simmer until vegetables are tender
15. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil and blanch spinach for 40 seconds
16. Remove with a strainer/kitchen spider and place spinach in ice water to stop cooking.
17. Squeeze water out of spinach as much as possible and set aside in small bowl for now
18. Increase heat to medium high and bring soup to a boil again.
19. In a bowl crack the eggs and whisk
20. Add 1 cup of flour and salt and pepper to taste
21. Mix flour into eggs until it begins to look like a gummy tacky stretchy mixture. If still wet or tacky add remaining 1/4 cup of flour one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency as described.
22. When soup begins to boil drop egg dumplings in with a fork and butter knife.
23. It’s very gummy so you might have to wrestle with it until you get the hang of it
24. When all the dumplings have been added and begin to float turn off heat
25. Add spinach and stir
26. Garnish with fresh parsley
27. Serve and enjoy
28. Refrigerate or freeze remaining soup
29. Can refrigerate for up to 3 days
30. Can freeze up to 6 months

Tags

Best Italian wedding soup recipe,

Italian Wedding Soup,

Mahoning Valley Italian Wedding Soup,

Mahoning Valley Recipes,

Northeastern Ohio Recipes,

Northeastern Ohio wedding soup

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