Nonnie's Italian Wedding Soup

This soup reminds me of my childhood. My Nonnie used to make it in the pressure cooker, the whistling of which used to terrify me as a child. I also used to fight her over eating the kale and had a habit of eating everything but those leafy greens out of my soup bowl. My Nonnie passed away about ten years ago, but this soup lives on in both my mom's kitchen and now my own.  This soup lends itself very well to pressure cooking because the kale takes considerable time to cook. My pressure cooker is only 6 quarts so its not big enough so I just used a stock pot. If you're pressure cooking, just throw everything in together and cook for about 20-30 minutes, if you're sans-pressure cooker, this baby will take a few hours, but its worth it.

Start with the kale, remove the leafy greens from the rigid stalks and shred. I used 1 1/2 bunches because I now love dark leafy greens and tend to go heavy with the kale. (Kindly notice the shiny new granite counter tops in the background)

Get the kale cooking in a stock pot with 4 cups of stock, bring the stock and kale to a boil and cook for at least 30 minutes. This is not going to smell good, greens never smell good when they're cooking, but they taste much better than they smell.

Meanwhile, get your other veggies together. You'll need to mince 4 cloves of garlic, dice 2 medium white onions, chop 1 bunch of big or 1/2 bag of baby carrots, and chop 6 stalks of celery. Set these aside.

Next, make your meatballs. I used homemade pork sausage for mine, probably about 3/4 of a pound. Remove the sausage from its casing and add about 1/2 a cup breadcrumbs.

Mix these together with your hands and form into small balls.
Ignore adorable begging dog.
Sear the meatballs over medium heat. This helps them to stay together in the soup and cooks out a bit of the fat. Set these aside.
Check on you kale, it should be a little darker in color and flimsy.

Add the veggies, sausage balls and at least 4 to 6 more cups of stock. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer this for 45-60 minutes to be sure all the veggies and meatballs are cooked through.

Give the soup a taste to be sure the broth is yummy and everything is cooked, add any salt, pepper or other seasoning it may need. Lastly, add you pasta. I usually use orzo but didn't have any in my pantry, so I used 1/3 of a cup pastina. The pasta is going to absorb lots of stock, so be sure you have plenty to spare in your soup. Cook the pasta for about 5 minutes as you'll want it al dente. Don't be surprised if the pasta seems to disappear in the soup, its probably just hiding at the bottom of the pot.

I made 10 servings out of this recipe, so I hope you like it if you make it. Top with some Parmesan cheese and enjoy!
My good friend Liz enlightened me about this wonderful website www.sparkrecipes.com where you can input recipes and it will calculate nutritional information for you. For this recipe, per 1 and 1/2 cup serving, there are 150 calories and 6 grams of fat.

Pasta e fagioli

I spent Christmas this year at my new in-laws house celebrating with some lovely Swiss traditions, but realized once I got home that I missed some of the Italian traditions that I'm used to from growing up in Little Italy (aka Westerly, Rhode Island). I decided today was the perfect day for some pasta e fagioli. This soup is actually inspired by a pasta e fagioli I had in Greve in Chianti on my honeymoon, a meal I proclaim was the best meal I've ever had. I also decided that today was also the perfect day to document the soup in pictures ala Carla Jeffries' fantastic blog (see link list to the right and click on the 'il piatto blu' link) and because said wonderful in-laws bought me and Brian an awesome camera and we're quite the shutter bugs these days. Kindly do not judge the mess that is my kitchen, Brian and I are starting to remodel it next week and we've pretty much mailed it in with keeping it clean. Now to the soup . . .

 First, chop up a few things: about 1/10th of a pound of pancetta into cubes, 1-2 onions diced and 3-4 garlic cloves minced. I get the pancetta from the deli and usually order a quarter pound in thick slices. The nice deli man gave me three thick slices and I used one and a half of them. I used white onions because that's all that we had in the house, but any onion other than red will do. You'll also want to drain and rinse two cans of Great Northern or Cannellini beans. Later, you'll need a sprig or two of rosemary, so you may consider getting that out now too. I have a huge rosemary bush in my backyard (another spoil from the awesome in-laws) and I highly recommend you get one too.

Next, melt one tablespoon of butter in your stock pot. I tend to be a devoted olive oil girl, but this recipe does really well with butter. Once its melted, add your pancetta. 

Cook the pancetta for 5-15 minutes depending on how fatty the cut you have is. You want to make sure a good portion of the fat is rendered. 

Once the pancetta is a little crispy, add the diced onions and minced garlic and cook for 2-4 minutes until the onions start to get a little translucent. Now is also a good time to add any other seasoning you'd like. I put in a pinch of salt, some fresh ground pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Next, add a third to half of a bottle of white wine and the rosemary sprigs. I used a sweet white, but anything white will do. The wine adds some really good flavor, so unless you're a teetotaler, I strongly suggest adding it. Cook this for about 10 minutes so that the alcohol cooks away but the flavor cooks into the veggies. Then add the beans and 4-6 cups of stock. I used chicken stock but anything but beef should taste yummy. Simmer the soup for 20-40 minutes. I like to believe that the longer you simmer, the better it tastes, but I have no idea if that's actually true.

Once everything has happily simmered for a while and the broth tastes delicious, its time to blend this baby with your trusty stick blender. First, pull out the rosemary sprigs as they can sometimes taste a little bit like a tree. You can pull a few of the rosemary leaves off and keep them in the soup, but not the entire sprig, unless you like the taste of tree. Take the soup off the heat and blend until smooth. If you don't have a stick blender, you can use a stand blender, just be sure to cool the soup a bit first (or be ready to clean up the mess you'll make if you don't).

Lastly, put the soup back over medium heat, and add about 1/2 a cup of ditalini or other small pasta. If you can't find ditalini, rigatoni could work in a pinch. Cook for 6-7 minutes, you'll want the pasta to be al dente. If you're eating or serving the soup immediately, it will be a little thin but very delicious and surprisingly hearty. If you're going to refrigerate and eat later, be prepared for it to thicken a ton and only slightly thin out when reheated. It will still be delicious. The pasta has a tendency to sink to the bottom, so when doling out portions, be sure that you're ladling from the bottom or else you'll end with a serving of all pasta and many of all broth. Enjoy!