Taste Invader

“This soup in fact has nothing to do with weddings. In Italian, it is called minestra maritata (married soup) for its harmonious mingling of ingredients, and somewhere along the line the name got mistranslated.”

Saveur: Issue #72

I love soup.  I would say that soup tastes better in the dead of winter, but I have to tell you, a rich chicken soup tastes pretty damn good in the middle of summer too.  Ok, but it is more pleasant to make soup in January than it is in June.

I also have a thing for stock.  I love making stock, I love the taste of stock and I only cook with homemade stock.  And it couldn’t be easier to make: one whole chicken, one gallon water, one large onion, two ribs celery, two carrots, one head of garlic cut in half, fresh herbs (parsley, sage, thyme, marjoram, bay leaves or some combination thereof), salt and pepper.  Low simmer for 4 hours, strain and enjoy.  It freezes beautifully.  I keep several quarts of both beef and chicken stock in the freezer for soups, sauces and just generally for adding more flavor.

And what could possibly pair better with a fine stock than a spicy meatball?

I had seen Ina Garten’s recipe for Italian Wedding Soup and had been wanting to try it.  And what better time to try it than a cold weekend in January.  So I did, with a few minor modifications.

For the meatballs:  I wanted to make a rich and spicy chicken meatball but I am not a fan of ground chicken.  I find it too dry and devoid of flavor.  I love the taste of chicken and want to taste chicken in both the stock and in the meatball.  I wanted the meatballs to taste like a good roast chicken and to feel rich and substantial without being heavy and without having to add a lot of extra fat.  To achieve this I used a combination of ground dark meat from the chicken leg and thigh and turkey Italian sausage.  The “marriage” of the two types of meat added both depth of flavor and richness to the texture.  Instead of competing with the chicken, the turkey actually intensified the flavor of the chicken’s dark meat and added much needed moisture to the finished meatball.

For those in New York, there is a place in the East Village called Porchetta. http://www.porchettanyc.com/ They have the most amazing Italian, slow-roasted pork shoulder, or Porchetta.  I am there more often than I care to admit and I saw that they have recently started selling their seasoning salt—a blend of Sicilian sea-salt, wild fennel pollen, fennel seed, sage, rosemary, garlic—used to flavor the pork.  I bought some and decided to use it to compliment the flavor of the Italian sausage in the meatball and enhance the overall flavor of the soup.

For the soup:  Marjoram and Parmesan pair very well together.  I used both to flavor the meatballs and garnished the soup with grated Parmesan and minced fresh marjoram.  Marjoram is similar to oregano but sweeter, with more citrus and a hint of pine.  I wanted to bring out the sweet and citrus in the marjoram so I used ¼ cup of an elderflower liqueur to finish the soup.  This particular liqueur has a very bright floral flavor and disappears into the soup masking its flavor as an herb.  A bright, citrus-y white wine would also work well.

And finally, I needed some heat.  I used Thai dried chiles, prig hang, for an unexpected burst of heat.

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

1 pound ground chicken

1 pound turkey italian sausage, casings removed

1 cup fresh white bread crumbs

4 cloves minced garlic

3 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

¼ cup milk

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

2 heaping teaspoons Porchetta seasoned salt (Sicilian sea-salt, wild fennel pollen, fennel seed, sage, rosemary, garlic)

freshly ground black pepper

For the Soup:

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 ½ cup minced yellow onion

1 ½ cup diced carrots, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

1 ½ cup diced celery, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

5 cloves minced garlic

3 quarts homemade chicken stock

¼ elderflower liqueur or ½ cup dry white wine

1 cup small pasta

5 dried hot peppers

16 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

2 heaping teaspoons Porchetta seasoned salt

freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

1.   For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Parmesan, milk, egg, 2 teaspoons Porchetta salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork.

2.   With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 48 meatballs. They don’t have to be perfectly round.)

3.   Bake for 50 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

4.    For the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and sauté until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5.    Add the chicken stock, wine and chiles and bring to a boil and cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.  Add pasta and cook until tender.

6.    Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted.

7.    Add the meatballs and pan drippings to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper.

8.    Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.

~ by Taste Invader on January 19, 2010.

Posted in Soup