Italian Wedding Soup

On a rainy and cold Wednesday I was inspired to make a homemade soup, something chunky and also light. What came to mind, Italian wedding, I love those little meatball.I decided to stick with my streak of good luck and check out Martha Stewart and found her version of the soup.

I first made meatballs out of ground turkey, breadcrumbs,egg, spices, and Parmesan cheese. Hand rolling the meatballs was interactive, messy, and very fun. When I was little I loved helping my mom make meatloaf for the sole reason that I liked to mush up the meat.



I then made the broth out of chicken broth and diced tomatoes, brought to a simmer... lots of liquid... took forever. Then I added the meatballs. They cooked while in the broth and as an indication of when they were done they floated to the top. I could go into the chemistry of the heat exchange between the broth and the meatball and how cooking them changes their density but I will spare you. Lets just stick with it was fun to see the the meatballs float up the the top as they finished cooking :)

Lastly I added the escarole... what is that. Escarole is a form of endive. What is endive, a bitter salad green and they mean bitter. I tried some of the escarole raw and almost had to spit it out it was so nasty, but luckily like most green veggies the bitterness totally disappears as you cook it.
I arrived at Central Market ready to find escarole. I went to the salad green section and saw this. The get a size comparison, it is as big as my head ans very unruly. As I tried to stuff it in a bag I had no success. The bag was way too small, the lettuce was wet and I had a basket in my arms. I am sure it was a sight to see and I wrestled with this lettuce. I finally gave up put the lettuce on the scale printed out a label and stick it to a bag and just put the lettuce loose in my basket.. As the check out I gave them the produce bag and then had them but the escarole in a plastic grocery bag and it barely fit in there.

I chopped up the escarole and added it to the soup. It cooked for about five minutes until it was good and wilted. I served the soup with Italian bread.

YUM.

Check out the recipe at http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/light-italian-wedding-soup