Italian Wedding Soup
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Simple, quick and easy with homemade tender, juicy, chicken meatballs, hearty veggies and pasta. Freezer-friendly too!
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reasons to make Italian wedding soup
- Fancy weeknight meal. Italian wedding soup is perfect for busy weeknights, prepping the meatballs ahead of time, but also fancy enough for dinner parties and weekend company without any of the fuss.
- Cozy soup vibes. As the weather starts to cool down, warm up with the coziest bowl of soup, made with the most flavorful, rich broth, juicy, tender meatballs, hearty sneaked-in veggies and short cut pasta, all finished with a little sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan on top.
- Freezer-friendly. Make a big batch of soup to freeze for later for a rainy day. Freeze in individual servings for super convenient grab-and-go dinners for months to come!
what is Italian wedding soup
Known as minestra maritata meaning “wedded soup”, Italian wedding soup is the holy matrimony between meat, vegetables and pasta in a chicken broth. Ironically, Italian wedding soup is not relevant to weddings in Italy.
italian wedding soup VS. minestrone
Both Italian wedding soup and minestrone are Italian soups, but Italian wedding soup typically includes meatballs as a hero ingredient whereas minestrone is traditionally a vegetable-based soup with hearty beans, often times without meat.
tips and tricks for success
- Prep the meatballs ahead of time. The meatballs can be assembled up to 1 day in advance and placed in the fridge until ready to use. The uncooked meatballs can also be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month (once flash freezing), thawing overnight in the fridge. For a quicker shortcut, substitute frozen mini meatballs.
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your soup. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety. Homemade stock is even better.
- Use short cut pasta. Ditalini, orzo, acini di pepe or a small shape pasta is ideal.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Kale, spinach, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Add freshly squeezed lemon juice. Lemon juice will elevate your Italian wedding soup, adding a fresh, bright flavor and balancing out all the saltiness and richness of the soup.
- Store pasta separately for leftovers. When planning for leftovers, store the cooked ditalini pasta separately from the soup to prevent it from soaking up all the broth.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with italian wedding soup
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Italian Wedding Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground beef, ground pork or ground turkey can be used instead of ground chicken.
Panko is a Japanese-style breadcrumb and can be found in the Asian section of your local grocery store. Similar to traditional breadcrumbs, Panko serves as a binder to hold the meatballs together, but its larger, flakier texture creates a crispier, crunchier, lighter crust on the meatballs.
Place the uncooked meatballs on a baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment paper, freezing for 1 hour until solid. Transfer the meatballs to an airtight, resealable freezer bag. Label, date and freeze up to 1 month.
You can use either chicken broth or chicken stock but always season, to taste, as store-bought broth is often saltier than store-bought stock. Broth is made from meat and vegetables while stock is often lower sodium and thicker than broth, and is made from bones and vegetables. absolutely be used here but chicken thighs have more dark meat and a higher fat content which will yield juicier, more flavorful chicken.
Kale, cabbage, swiss chard and collard greens are all great subs.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the pasta (or else they will get mushy). Let cool completely; portion into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Lay the bags flat in a single layer in the freezer (this will help them freeze quickly). To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating over low heat until heated through, adding freshly cooked pasta when serving.
Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup ditalini pasta
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 3 cups baby spinach, chopped
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
For the chicken meatballs
- ½ pound ground chicken
- ½ pound chicken sausage, casing removed
- ⅓ cup Panko
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add chicken meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the stockpot. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in chicken stock and bay leaves; bring to a boil.
- Stir in ditalini, thyme, rosemary and meatballs; reduce heat and simmer until pasta is tender and meatballs are cooked through, about 9-12 minutes.
- Stir in spinach, lemon juice and parsley until spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan, if desired.
For the chicken meatballs
- In a large bowl, combine ground chicken, chicken sausage, Panko, Parmesan, egg, oregano, basil, parsley and garlic powder; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 3/4-to-1-inch meatballs, forming about 25-30 meatballs.
Did you make this recipe?
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Very nice soup. Broth turned out excellent. The lemon juice secretly added a lot!
Thanks
This was absolutely delicious and fairly simple! To save a little time I baked the meatballs at 400 for 25 min and sprayed the meatballs and the pan with a little olive oil to crisp them up. Thank you for this wonderful recipe! My only advice on this is to double to recipe so you have leftovers 🙂
People, please make this soup. It is healthy, filling, and beyond good. I’ve probably made it 20 times now and my family still raves every time. I also make it for friends and neighbors when they need a meal brought to them.
Thank you for this fantastic recipe!
So delicious! Everyone loved it even my 1 year old!
Best wedding soup I have ever had! Thank you for sharing!
Oh my goodness! I think I croaked and went to heaven with this recipe! Chungah, you have yourself yet another winner! My whole family loved this recipe. The only thing was I couldn’t find the acini de pepe pasta so we subbed in Ditalini since we had some left over when we made your AMAZING Italian Meatball soup. And I halved the thyme amount since I’m not big on that herb. But it was PERFECT! Wow. We love your recipes! People, don’t hesitate to make this. You will be so glad you did.
Made it yesterday, 5th time. Have to double batch it because it’s a crowd pleaser.
This is now my go to recipe. I used 1 pound of ground chicken (instead of using sausage) to make meatballs…I had leftover chicken thighs that I chopped up and added to the soup (only bcuz I bought italian wedding soup that weekend that had tiny pieces of chopped up chicken); used Orzo because that is all I had. Delicious!!
This was so good! My friend and I meal prep on Mondays. So we baked the meatballs ahead of time and made this in the crockpot! The day we ate it, very thing except the pasta, spinach and lemon went in the crockpot. About an hour before serving we added the uncooked pasta, spinach and lemon. It was absolutely perfect! Even the picky kids loved it!
Excellent Soup! This is one of my favorite soups. Easy & delicious. I make soups all year long and put this one into my choices very often.
I LOVED this soup. I will say, it’s better than the East Side Mario’s one 😉 hehe
I substituted ground beef and pork sausages for the meatballs and used Israeli couscous instead.
I had left overs for 3 days and it tasted just as good if not better!
Thanks so much for sharing.
The soup was terrific!!! I used turkey sausage in place of chicken sausage. I also let the stock, vegetables and meatballs simmer for the afternoon to allow the flavors to soak in.
Definitely a repeat recipe!!
Do you have the nutritional information that you can share with us?
The most amazing soup… I went by the recipe to a tee…but I used ground turkey..1 lb, and turkey sausage 1 lb…little more meatballs… but the soup was so wonderful… and thick….lots and lots of prep… but was so worth it
Just fabulous. Didn’t have pork so just used chicken for meatballs. They were a little soft to form but were delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Just made yesterday. Very good and easy recipe. I used only chicken as I had no sausage. Used orzo as pasta. Delicious. Thanks!
An excellent recipe as always!
This was seriously delicious. . I didn’t have celery but it was amazingly yummy. We served it with a side of garlic bread. I absolutely loved it. ❤️ Thanks.
Easy to follow directions……I made ground beef meatballs as that’s what I had.. and I also had orzo so used that as well….. served it with fresh baked bread…….thanks!
Looks delicious – if trying to keep it gluten-free, what would you recommend for the acini di pepe substitution? I can easily find a panko sub for the meatballs, but the size and texture of the acini di pepe look great. Thanks!
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
So good – delicious and satisfying!
Awesome!