Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup with
gluten-free bread from Against the Grain

Have you ever had Italian Wedding Soup before? I've had it once several years ago, and it was good! My husband, who is half Italian, had never had it before and was a bit skeptical when I told him that's what we were having for dinner the other night. But, as always, he's a good sport and eats what I put in front of him.

The Italian Wedding Soup recipe I found came from Rocco Dispirito's Now Eat This! Italian cookbook, which means it's low-carb and low-sugar and low-calorie. (You can also find the original recipe on Rocco's Pinterest page.) Or at least it was until I got to it.

There are no meatballs in Rocco's version! You can't have Italian Wedding Soup without meatballs! Otherwise, it's just chicken broth and escarole (which is a type of lettuce that I had never worked with before). So I made my Real Simple Easy Meatballs beforehand and threw them into the soup at the end.  Even then, my husband said it felt like something was missing from the soup.

"Beans!" I said.

"Beans?" he asked.

Yes, beans. I know that when I had Italian Wedding Soup there were white beans in it. But Rocco says that if you want to make it the "Italian Mama" way, NO BEANS. Well, poo to that. I'm adding a can of cannellini beans next time, just for some added texture.

Also, I did not use egg whites in this recipe. Something about the step that said "drop the egg whites into the soup and move around until they get stringy" just didn't sit right with me. I was afraid I'd mess it up and there would be weird egg in our soup. I don't want any kind of egg, weird or not, in my soup.

If you're making this gluten-free, don't forget to check your chicken broth label! And if you're adding homemade meatballs, don't forget to use gluten-free bread crumbs. I pulsed up two end pieces in my little food processor. Worked great!

You can find more low-carb/low-sugar meals, including more from Rocco, on my Low-Carb, Low-Sugar Pinterest board. Enjoy!