Wedding Soup

Named so not because it's *for* weddings, although it kind of is, rather for the "wedding" of meat and veg. It's a nice, piquant and light chicken broth based soup with herby overtones. Jacking up the lemon gives it a puckery avgolemono vibe.

Based on Cooking Classy's recipe

Meatballs

• 8 oz ground turkey (next time maybe ground sirloin)
• 8 oz hot bulk pork sausage (next time maybe Italian?)
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup parsley
• 1 1/2 tsp oregano
• 4 diced green onions
• handful of chiffed basil
• 1 large egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Use fresh herbs here everywhere you can. It's a very mild broth so they really come alive. This soup is a ballet dance, not stadium rock. And don't be overzealous like me and use two sprigs of rosemary. I had to adjust to de-pine tree the broth.

Soup

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups 1/4-inch diced carrots
• 2 diced yellow onion
• 4 or so stalks diced celery
• 2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste to taste (india market)
• 6 cups water
• 1 sprig rosemary. Not two. One.
• 1/4 cup fresh dill weed chopped
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• MSG to taste
• chicken bullion paste to taste
• 2 cans cannelini beans
• 1 cup dry acini de pepe, stars etc. teeny tiny pasta (I used ditalini, and it seemed inappropriately large)
• bag of baby spinach, de-stemmed and hand-torn
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• diced green onion and more lemon or lime for garnish

Cooking:
For the meatballs:
Dump and mix, and form the tiniest meatballs you can, 3/4 or 1/2" or so.
Bake 350F for 20-25 minutes, then turn and broil till everything is browned.

For the soup:
Brown everything in batches but the spinach, I used bacon fat.
Dump and go with everything but the spinach and pasta. Bring to boil. Add pasta. Turn down heat, simmer 10 minutes. Add the spinach at the very end. I threw in a little handful of bacon at the end, cause it needed a bit more character, but don't drown out the herbal notes. Finish with green onion and lemon or lime squeezes.