My grandmother was from Agnone Italy and this was her recipe. She would never have put anything tomato in this recipe. That would be more like Minestrone, which is another excellent Italian soup. I am the submitter of this recipe and I just wanted to comment on the "lack of pasta" in this recipe. My grandmother never put pasta in her wedding soup. I wanted to share the recipe as it was prepared in my Italian family. You can add pasta if you like it, of course.
I am giving this 5 stars because this is the only recipe that had the egg mixture in it. I combined the end of this recipe with the first part of 'Mama's Italian Wedding Soup' by Lalena. I also made a bunch of changes to that recipe - see my rating for details.
This was a truley amazing dish...a technique that I used for this was to shock the spinach which i used in place of the escole. this is done by placing the spinach in ice water when straining out of the boiling water. this keeps the spinach that vibrant green color. This can be done with any green vegtable to keep its color.
Great recipe...but remove the meatballs from the broth (after they are cooked) and before you add the escarole put the egg mixture into the broth and cook it before you add the meatballs and escarole... it makes it easier if you do this first... oh and the meatballs are great with spaghetti...yummmmy
This is the closest thing to my Italian Grandmother's version - she owned three restaurants. The smaller you make the meatballs the better -- also we boil and shred chicken in the broth and add just a few homeade croutons on the top with parmesan cheese.
I am giving this recipe 4 stars since it is the most like the soup I make. The other recipes on this web site do not come close to the soup my husband and I grew up with. The one glaring omission in this recipe is the PASTA! Acini di pepe is a must in this recipe. Add to your taste. I also prefer to use fresh spinach instead of escarole but my husband is use to escarole and likes it. I do not add the egg at the end of the recipe since I do not prefer it this way. I also add some minced garlic. Overall this recipe has promise!
IT BROUGHT ME BACK TO MY CHILDHOOD WHEN MY MOM WOULD MAKE THIS FOR US ON SPECIAL HOLIDAYS. I NEVER GOT THIS RECIPE FROM HER AND NOW I HAVE IT. THANK YOU MY KIDS AND HUSBAND LOVE IT...
This is the most similar to my own family's recipe for meatball soup. Ours never had pasta either. The only difference is that instead of the egg mixture we make an egg-based crouton that tops the soup after it's been ladled into the bowls. To make the croutons beat eggs with parsley garlic salt and pepper. Soak cubes of bread in the egg mixture then deep fry until crisp. These can be made ahead of time then toasted in the oven to re-crisp just before serving.
This soup was bland with too much escarole not enough broth and the cheese/egg mixture made it gloppy and unappetizing (yes I stirred while adding). It didn't look very appetizing and I threw away the rest of it.
