Itailian Wedding Soup

*These meatball are great in this soup, or alone as an appetizer and great in pasta with sauce.
*The soup base minus the spinach and noodles replaced with egg noodles and add chicken makes great chicken noodle soup.
*Unless you have a huge crowd, there will be leftovers. I like to add the spinach individually to each bowl, so it doesn't get soggy sitting in the stock.

Meatballs:
3/4 lb. ground turkey
1/2 lb. chicken sausage, casing removed (I use Trader Joe's Sicilian Chicken Sausage)
2/3 c. white bread crumbs (2 slices with crusts cut off, chop and make crumbs in mini food processor)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 TB. fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1/4 c. Pecorino Romano, grated
1/4 c. Parmesan, grated (Trader Joe's has a romano parmesan blend. I just use 1/2 c. of that)
3 TB. milk
1 extra lg. egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper

Soup:
2 TB. olive oil
1 c. yellow onion, minced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, chopped into 1/4" pieces
10 c. chicken stock
1/2 c. dry white wine
1 c. small pasta such as orzo, stars, etc.
1/4 c. fresh dill, minced
1/4 c. fresh parsley, minced
12 oz. baby spinach, washed and trimmed
1-2 TB. chicken soup base

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the meatballs, place all the meatball ingredients in a bowl and combine. Form meatballs about 1" and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes, until thoroughly cooked and lightly browned. Set aside.

In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots and celery and saute until softened about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the wine and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Check seasoning and add soup base as necessary. Add the pasta and cook 6-8 minutes until pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and parsley and meatballs and simmer for 1 minute. Check seasoning again. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute. Serve with extra parmesan cheese.

Submitted by: Kamdyn