Submitted by Salvatore Bordonaro
Ingredients:
Broth:
- 64 oz chicken broth
- 64 oz water
- 1 escarole bunch, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup chives, chopped
- 1 lb. carrots, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes
Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups Italian flavored breadcrumbs
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup Romano cheese
- 1/4 cup dry mint
- black pepper, salt
- 1 lb Tubettini or Acine de pepe pasta
- Parmesan
Instructions:
Make the broth:
- Add chicken broth and water to large pot. Add escarole, onion, chives, carrots, celery to pot, over medium heat.
- Let simmer while meatballs are being prepared.
Make the meatballs:
- Preheat oven to 300ºF.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix ground beef and ground pork together along with the breadcrumbs, eggs, cheese, water, mint, and 1/2 tsp. salt until mixture is firm.
- Spray frying pan with cooking spray and turn heat up to medium.
- Form one inch meatballs and begin to brown in preheated pan.
- Place browned meatballs on baking sheet in preheated oven.
- Bake meatballs for 15 minutes and place in soup pot to cook along with vegetables.
- Add diced tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.
- Simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
- 15 minutes before serving, make the pasta. In a separate large pot, boil salted water, add pasta and cook al dente according to package directions.
- Once pasta is cooked, strain water in a colander and mix soup with pasta. (Do not cook soup and pasta in the pot because the soup will become starchy.)
- Serve soup in a bowl and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.