This Italian Wedding Soup is chock-full of meatballs and pasta and vegetables- adapted from Ina Garten’s Back to Basics Cookbook.

italian wedding soup in bowl with spoon

Italian Wedding Soup

There are some days that soup feels entirely perfect and comforting for dinner. But can soup be considered a main dish? My husband doesn’t think so. When soup is placed in front of him for his evening meal, he looks at me, smiles and says, “What’s for dinner?” My loving response is, “Sweetheart… some soups are meant to be main dishes. This Italian Wedding Soup is one of them.” And it is!

ingredients displayed for making italian wedding soup

🛒 Ingredients Needed:

  • ground turkey
  • turkey sausage
  • fresh white bread crumbs
  • grated Parmesan cheese
  • fresh Italian parsley and fresh dill
  • minced garlic
  • milk
  • egg
  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • olive oil
  • onion, carrot and celery
  • chicken broth
  • dry white wine
  • small pasta
  • fresh baby spinach
four photos showing how to make italian wedding soup

How to make Italian Wedding Soup:

*The complete, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

PREPARE THE MEATBALLS:

Place the ground meats, bread crumbs, Parmesan, parsley, garlic, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper (you’ll make somewhere around 40 meatballs). Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

PREPARE THE SOUP:

Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large stock pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in the chicken broth and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook an additional 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted.

overhead shot of pot of italian wedding soup

💡How to make fresh white bread crumbs:

Don’t be tempted to use those yucky dry breadcrumbs sold in a can. You can make fresh breadcrumbs quickly and easily in a food processor or in a coffee or spice grinder with whatever bread you have on hand (even English muffins and pita bread will work!)

You’ll get the best results if your bread is slightly stale. Tear the slices into pieces (remove the crusts first) and fill your processor or grinder about half full. Pulse until you get bread crumbs. If you don’t have a processor or a grinder, you can rub slices of stale bread on a box grater instead.

➡️ Meatball Tips:

  • Baking the meatballs in the oven makes this entire process so much simpler than trying to saute 40 meatballs in a skillet. They’re done cooking after about 30 minutes.  Then you can set them aside until you’re ready to add them to your Italian Wedding Soup.
  • You might be tempted to just use frozen meatballs for this recipe, and it’s perfectly okay if you do. But you need to know that making this homemade recipe will be so much better!
  • I set my meatballs on the counter once when I was preparing for a dinner party. Then I went into my bedroom to get ready, and when I returned to my kitchen I found that my dog had helped herself to all forty meatballs. I guess she thought they were good too! An emergency call was made to one of my guests to ask her to stop and get some frozen meatballs at the store. They weren’t nearly as good as these though!
ladle putting soup into bowl

✔️ How to store Italian Wedding Soup:

This soup is excellent when eaten the next day. I find that soups with pasta tend to lose a lot of their broth when sitting overnight in the refrigerator. For this reason, I always buy an extra can of chicken broth to add to the soup the next day. This will ensure you’ll still be eating soup and not just soaked up noodles!

italian wedding soup topped with parmesan cheese in bowl

❤️ What I Love About This Recipe:

  1. This is one of my go-to soup recipes because it’s so delicious.
  2. It’s a great soup to serve to company.
  3. This is a recipe that is worth the effort. I love having leftovers!
italian wedding soup in a bowl
italian wedding soup in bowl with spoon
4.78 from 9 votes

Italian Wedding Soup

Absolutely my favorite soup recipe to make for chilly days!
Prep: 45 minutes
Cook: 50 minutes
Total: 1 hour 35 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
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Ingredients

MEATBALLS:

SOUP:

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350℉.

PREPARE THE MEATBALLS:

  • Place the ground meats, bread crumbs, Parmesan, parsley, garlic, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper (you’ll make somewhere around 40 meatballs). Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

PREPARE THE SOUP:

  • Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large stock pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken broth and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook an additional 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan cheese.

Notes

  • Make sure you have some extra broth on hand. When leftovers are stored, the pasta tends to soak up the broth and you’ll want to add some more later.
  • If you’re counting WW Points be sure to use lean ground turkey in your meatballs.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 316kcal, Carbohydrates: 24g, Protein: 23g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 82mg, Sodium: 1708mg, Potassium: 825mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 5818IU, Vitamin C: 40mg, Calcium: 186mg, Iron: 3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Bowl of Italian Wedding Soup
4.78 from 9 votes (5 ratings without comment)

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35 Comments

  1. Janet says:

    Seeing your description and fab photos, I think I want this for breakfast! It truly does look like a hearty meal. This will be made ASAP before the Phoenix cold weather goes away!

  2. Creative Kitchen says:

    I’ve been wanting to make Italian Wedding soup as I never have. I love Ina’s recipes, so this will be the perfect fit. Thanks for sharing. Beautiful photos!!

  3. marla says:

    Lori, this Italian wedding soup looks delicious. Love Ina Gartens style of cookig – pure & simple.

  4. LilSis says:

    I’m glad I saw this before I finished my menu planning for the week. This looks delicious! I love that the meatballs are made with turkey and turkey sausage and are baked instead of fried. I’m making this soup this week!

    Your photos are awesome, as usual! 🙂

  5. Monica says:

    My goodness, this looks delicious. I love that the meatballs are made with ground turkey, making it a healthier option. I’m in such a soup kind of mood lately. This recipe is a keeper.

  6. Jenny says:

    Every time I see a recipe for this soup, I make a mental note to try it, but for some reason I never have. I’m putting this on my list of recipes to try immediately. It looks wonderful!

  7. Blog is the New Blac says:

    I’ve made this before and LOVED it! The only thing I didn’t like was the romano cheese. I’ll use parm next time!

  8. Sandy @ RE says:

    Never made it. Looks lovely.

    I made soup this weekend and it was so yummy! That’s one thing I do love about winter! LOL

    Have a great week!

  9. Lauren at KeepItSwee says:

    I’ve never made Italian Wedding Soup but it does look perfectly comforting for a cold day!

  10. Shelby says:

    First of all – this soup looks very yummy! Secondly, I am feeling especially like not going outside today because it is -10 degrees here this morning!

    Grumpy says the same thing about soups and he never is happy if I try to feed him any kind of sandwich for dinner. He says he eats sandwiches for lunch and wants nothing to do with them for dinner!