Sunday's Soup

As I said in yesterday's post, I was up most of the night and so I slept in late. The house still has that acrid smell, so I left all the windows open. I took the grille grates out in the garage and wiped up all the white ashes in the stove. I ate half of the cantaloupe (sans ice cream) for my breakfast - sweet!

Then I got in the car and went to Jake and Carla's to see their new dog. She's an adult pit bull mix. Now, I know what you're thinking and five years ago, I would have thought the same thing. But, my neighbors have had a female pit bull ever since they moved in and she's just the sweetest dog. In fact, in studies, they say a normal pit bull (not one trained to fight) is less aggressive than both setters and beagles! Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Anyway, she's black and white and a really nice dog. She likes to play fetch (which is cool to watch as she usually overruns the toy and then spins around to get it).But what she really likes is to be petted. Nice, nice dog!

I ate some bagels with cream cheese and visited a while, then went back home (I was beat). My ToDo list was as long as usual, but I was definitely out of it. So, I lay down and took about an hour nap.

When I got up, I started the last load of weekend laundry. When that finished washing, I watered the raised bed garden. When I was done with that, I ran the dishwasher. Oh, and I did have a brainstorm and turned the thermostat to "fan" after I sprayed each room with some Oust. I figured that way the air movement might clean out the house.

About 5:30, I started my Italian Wedding Soup. I preheated the oven (albeit with some trepidation) to 350 degrees F.

For the meatballs, I put 3/4 pound of ground chicken, 1/2 pound of chicken Italian sausage (taken out of their casings), 2/3 cups of bread crumbs, three cloves of minced garlic, three tablespoons of fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley, 1/4 cup of fresh grated Pecorino Romano cheese, 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, three tablespoons of milk, one beaten large egg, one teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and tried to combine it gently with a fork (as directed by the recipe). It didn't work, so I just used my hands.

I rolled and dropped 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should end up with about 40 meatballs and they don't have to be perfectly round.) I put them in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes, (you want them cooked through and lightly browned). When they were done, I pulled them out and let them rest.

In the meantime, for the soup, I heated two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in my Dutch oven (you can use any large heavy-bottomed soup pot). I added one cup of diced yellow onions, one cup of those beautiful baby carrots (cut to 1/4 inch rings), and one cup of 1/4 inch diced celery (about two stalks). I saut�ed them until they were softened, five to six minutes, stirring occasionally.

I added 10 cups of homemade chicken stock and 1/2 cup of white wine and brought it to a boil. I added one cup of small pasta (You can use tubetini or stars - I had orzo so that's what I went with) to the simmering broth and cooked it for eight minutes, until the pasta was tender. I added 1/4 cup of minced fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmered it for one minute.

I taste-tested the broth for salt and pepper (it needed a little more salt and a whole lot of pepper). Then I stirred in 10 ounces of fresh baby spinach and cooked it for one minute, until the spinach was just wilted. Note, this looks like way too much (it overflowed my Dutch oven) but it wilts like a mother in a few minutes.

It was almost 8:00 PM, so I ladled up a big bowl, sprinkled it with more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and went in to watch my Sunday shows. I think the soup was better than the TV tonight, but neither was great! My only regret was not buying a loaf of that rustic Italian bread to go with this soup.