Italian Wedding Soup.....Soup of the Year!

This week has been a rough week in our house for having the ickies.  Jon, Bailey, and I all have been ill with one thing or another but I'd have to give Jon the gold medal with being the sickest.  Well, the one thing that would make him feel better is the Italian Wedding Soup that he would get in the cafeteria at the stadium.  Now, I've never heard of this soup so when he asked me to find a recipe for it I was skeptical b/c I've never eaten it so how would I know what a good recipe would be.  Off to the Food Network I go and found a recipe by Giada de Laurentiis.  It had to be good, right.  I mean, it's Giada for goodness sake!

This soup was amazing!  I'm serious.  This has made the top of my list for favorite soups.  Goes to show that you have to go outside the box and try something you would never consider making before.  There's two things I would do different but that's b/c I'm trying to replicate the stadium's soup.  Next time I will cut the endive smaller and make smaller meatballs.  This time around I did add 1 cup of orzo pasta which she didn't call for but it's something that Jon really liked so I have to please the hubby! :-) 

So let's see....I'm from LA so I have the gumbo down pat, lived in TX so got my Mexican soups down pat, and now that I'm up in Boston I've got my Italian soup down pat.  Can't wait to eat supper tonight!!!

Oh and CLICK HERE to watch the video of her making it.  It actually came in hand to be able to watch her do certain steps like adding the egg at the end.  Enjoy!!!

Meatballs:
1 small onion, grated
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large egg
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 slice fresh white bread, crust trimmed, bread torn into small pieces
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
8 ounces ground beef *
8 ounces ground pork *
Freshly ground black pepper


Soup:
12 cups low-sodium chicken broth (equals to the 3 large containers of broth.)
1 pound curly endive, coarsely chopped (1 pound of escarole would be a good substitution) **
2 large eggs
2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Directions
To make the meatballs: Stir the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese, beef and pork. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a baking sheet.


To make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and curly endive and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the curly endive is tender, about 8 minutes. Whisk the eggs and cheese in a medium bowl to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin stands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Finish soup with parmesan cheese if desired.


*Instead of buying two different meats, I found a "meatloaf mixture" in the meat department.  It was a pound of beef, pork, and veal.  Made it easier.
**I used escarole or also called chickory.  I just wanted to make a side note that if you are like me and never cooked with this before make sure you wash it good.  I happened to read it on another website so I paid close attention to it when I got home.  It is really dirty and the sand gets caught in the leaves.  Even with the produce department cleaning it for me it was still sandy.