A week ago my mom picked up four pounds of lamb for me at a butcher in Long Island. Because he butchered an 8-pound piece for me, I ended up with two beautiful shanks. After attending my cousin Riva's wedding last night, and because our brunch plans fell apart, AND (for the real reason) because Jessica wasn't feeling well, I decided to make some lamb stock, which would end up in homemade (the best kind) Italian Wedding Soup.
First I sauteed the shanks with salt and pepper in extra virgin olive oil in a large stock pot. I let them go for a good 15 minutes, during which time I added 1.5 roughly chopped onions and 3 cloves of garlic. I then caramelized half a can of tomato paste before deglazing with low sodium College Inn chicken broth. I filled the pot with water and added two roughly chopped carrots; two bay leaves (broken in halves), a tablespoon of peppercorns, and a large handful of fresh dill.
After bringing it to a boil, I let the stock reduce for about three hours. Towards the end I started making the soup: first I cooked some pasta and made the meatballs. While the standard pasta for this soup are elbows, I used a great variation on elbows, Barilla's pipette rigate.
Ingredients for Meatballs
- 0.5lb Ground Beef
- 0.5lb Ground Pork
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (or more, as necessary)
- 3 tbsp. chopped, flat leaf, Italian parsley
- 1 tbsp. granulated garlic
- 2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/4lb of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Black Pepper (to taste)
Before assembling the soup, I pulled the shanks out of the stock pot and pulled the meat off them. Then, I strained the stock and saved the carrots as a snack for Jessica later. In the mean time, I finely diced half an onion into a two-quart sauce pan, and added the stock. I also added a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, two cloves of garlic diced, lots of dried oregano, and adjusted seasoning (a little salt was necessary). In the mean time I rinsed some baby spinach and gave it a very coarse chop.Just before serving the soup, I added the spinach and some more parsley to the soup, along with the meatballs and pulled lamb meat (to reheat). I served with the pasta in the bowl.
The overall flavor was phenomenal. The stock had a rich flavor and the soup had just a bit of heat from the cayenne in the meat and the red pepper flakes in the soup. The spinach was also cooked perfectly.
While this soup does take a bit of work, it is worth every second. A lot of love goes into making soup like; and it can't be rushed. Perhaps that's the reason it has magical curative powers?
See more pictures of the soup and the cooking process in our Flickr set.
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Kasi&Stephen said:
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just curious - why not cook the pasta in the soup? |
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Lon said:
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I never cook pasta in the soup broth for several reasons. First, I'm not sure how cooking pasta in non-water affects timing, as opposed to in water, where it's easily controlled. Second, I want to cook the pasta in rapidly boiling water, if I boil the soup I'll loose too much liquid and need to add water. Third, cooking the pasta in the soup will release starches into the soup which will thicken it. This is ok for some soups (like hearty chicken noodle or a stew) but not for Italian Wedding. |