Does anyone remember that line, "No damn cat and no damn cradle?" It's from Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Cat's Cradle." I spent a lot of time reading Vonnegut in high school, trying to "get him." I never did. Everyone else was absolutely enthralled by his novels. I just didn't see it. Give me J. D. Salinger any day (admit it too: how many of you have identified with Holden Caufield in "The Catcher in the Rye?" How many wanted to be Franny or Zooey? And how many of you felt that the last story in "Nine Stories," was really about you? C'mon you literate bunch out there, start talking).
Well, I was thinking about that line when I was reading Ina Garten's new cookbook, "Back to Basics." I met her several years ago, in Chez Panisse, where we were both having dinner with our partners. She could NOT have been nicer. Insisted that I call her by her first name, asked how I change her recipes AND TOOK NOTES!!!! I think she's a beautiful woman, and she's even more beautiful in person. If you get a chance to meet her, do not turn it down.
Well, her new book has gotten some criticism from people as to being "not as good as the others," and "repetitious of other books." Frankly, I beg to differ. I have ALL of her books. The simplicity and directness with which she presents her food, and the clarity of her writing makes it all easy for you. Get the book. Get ALL of the books.
One of the recipes she includes is one for "Italian wedding soup." Now, I love this soup. But I had no idea what it had to do with Italian weddings. I've been to my share of them. It's never been served. I never had it growing up. I couldn't find a single version of it in any of my Italian cookbooks.
A bit of research helped. There is a soup, an OLD soup in Italy, called "minestra maritata," or "married soup." The point of the name is that there is a marriage of meat and vegetables in the soup. This is not common in Italian soups. You might have a meat and pasta soup, or a vegetable soup, but including both meat and vegetables in equal quantities is not seen. So the "marriage" idea works. Still, I find it interesting that none of the books I have - and I have many - talk about "minestra maritata."
Anyway, I have always loved the soup. Little tiny meatballs, orzo pasta, greens, in a slightly salty broth. I could eat bowls of it. But I didn't know how to make it. So when I found Ina's recipe, I was off and running.
I did, of course, change it. You knew I would, didn't you? I will tell you where I do. Forewarned: this makes a LOT of soup. A LOT OF SOUP. Either be ready to share it, or you'll be eating it for a while.
The meatballs are a bit time consuming but not difficult, and they can stand alone as little snacks. You need a pound of ground chicken, and then a half pound of some form of chicken sausage. Use whatever you like. Half a pound is usually four small sausages. Cut the casings and squeeze out the meat, and combine it with the ground meat. Then add a teaspoon of salt.
Ok, now you have to be brave and taste this. You're going to have to season this mix, and you won't know what to put in, until you taste it. When I tasted mine, I wasn't quite happy, so I added a large tablespoon of my favorite Italian seasoning mix (from Penzey's), and there we were. Now, you add half a cup of bread crumbs (Ina suggests fresh white ones, but I used flavored Italian crumbs, because that's what I had), and an egg, together with about three tablespoons of milk. Mix this all up with your hands, and taste it again. Ina includes two chopped cloves of garlic, but I wasn't really persauded by this. I DID add about a third of a cup of grated romano cheese, and a third of parmesan, which is what she calls for, but in greater quantities (Ina says a quarter cup each, I used the larger amount). Mix this all up, and form SMALL meatballs. You want to get about 35-40 of them. Line them up on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, and bake these for 30 minutes. They'll give off a bit of fat, brown, and firm up. You can eat these at this point, but please go on with the soup.
While the meatballs are baking, chop up one onion, three carrots and two stalks of celery. I did it in a food processor. Also, get a cup of small pasta. You can use something like "stelline," or "tubettini," or anything that you'll see advertised as "soup pasta." Orzo is really on the big size for this. There is a pasta called "semi," or "seeds" which will work. I used mini alphabets. Finally, your greens. Ina calls for 3/4 pound of baby spinach. I had the spinach on hand, but I also had some other, wonderful greens, including a bunch of dandelion greens, and a bunch of chard. If I didn't use the chard, I was going to lose it. The dandelions, I bought at the farmers market today . (they were from a green house). I chopped the dandelion greens and the chard, off of their stems. I augmened with spinach. I'd say there were about ten cups of greens. Don't worry. This will shrink markedly.
When the meatballs are done, get a very big pot, and cover it with olive oil. Add the chopped onion/carrot/celery mix and cook it, stirring, for about five minutes. I added a teaspoon of salt at this point. When the veggies are nice and soft, add 2 quarts of stock, and two cups of water (Ina suggests ten cups of stock). Also, add half a cup of white wine.
Now, let me address this wine issue, because I have a number of friends who won't touch it. I don't know if all the alcohol burns off, but it doesn't really matter what I think. I tasted the soup, and I believe the wine is there to give a slight acid edge to the soup. In fact, I remember having it with a kick of lemon juice and peel. I think the soup needs it, so if you're "off the sauce," add more water or stock, and squeeze in a l emon, and perhaps grate the peel into it.
Lower the heat, and add the pasta. Cook it for about six minutes, and the add the meatballs, and cook for a minute. Finally, stir in all of the greens. They will cook down and almost disappear in about a minute. Taste it for seasoning and fix it.
AND YOU ARE DONE. I got 13 cups of soup from this recipe. Think about that. Thirteen cups. I started with ten cups of stock, lots of greens - another ten cups - plus the pasta and the meatballs. So the greens clearly DID shrink down. That's a lot of soup for two people, but we know lots of hungry people.
When you serve this, it is suggested that you grate more cheese over it. I suppose that's ok, but I'm going to eat mine plain.
Thank you Ina. You gave me something I've been wanting for a long time. I'm coming back to this recipe, and I 'm going to serve your meatballs as snacks as well. Get out your notebook.
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