Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup, made with homemade broth, small meatballs, a mix of vegetables, and tiny bits of Acini di Pepe pasta, is a filling main-dish soup. If you've got homemade broth in the freezer, this soup comes together in about an hour, with only 10 minutes under pressure.
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I made a lot of turkey broth after Thanksgiving, so I'm making lots of soup. (Don't feel sorry for me, I love soup - leftover turkey broth season is my favorite time of year.) I haven't made Italian Wedding Soup in a while, so I made a batch - and realized that I didn't have the recipe on the blog.
Italian Wedding Soup is a fantastic main-dish soup, loaded with vegetables, meatballs, and tiny pasta. Don't worry about "it's just soup", it will fill you up.
What's the wedding in Italian Wedding Soup?
The soup has nothing to do with weddings in Italy; they will eat it for any occasion. Wedding Soup is actually "married soup" in Italian, referring to the flavors coming together ("marrying") in the soup.
Ingredients Notes and Substitutions
- Homemade Broth, full of flavor and body, is the key to this recipe. Homemade turkey broth, homemade chicken broth, or homemade beef broth will all work. (And if you have an Instant Pot and a leftover chicken or turkey carcass, homemade broth is easy to make.)
- Store-bought Broth:You can use store-bought broth if you have to, and the soup will still be good, but it won't be as good as with homemade broth. That said, this soup is plenty tasty even with store-bought broth. Buy "less sodium" broth if you can - store-bought broth is very salty. Do not add extra salt to the soup until you taste-test it - you may need a little more, but you probably won't.
- Ground meat for the meatballs: As I mention in the ingredients, you can use any ground meat you like. I used ground turkey in the pictures because I had turkey broth leftover from Thanksgiving, and it felt like a good match. That said, ground beef, ground pork, or meatloaf mix (a mix of ground beef and ground pork and sometimes ground veal) will also work.
- Sausage instead of meatballs: Another simple substitution in this soup is to use sausage instead of meatballs. Cut tubes of Italian sausage into 1-inch pieces, or get bulk Italian sausage and use it instead of the meatball mix - roll the bulk sausage into balls and drop it in the soup.
- Frozen store-bought meatballs: In a hurry? Buy frozen small meatballs at the store. The cooking time is the same. (Or, make the meatballs ahead of time and freeze them.)
- Panko bread crumbs: These flaky Japanese bread crumbs are my favorite, and I think they give me better meatballs, but I've also used regular store-bought bread crumbs, and they work too. In this recipe, I'd substitute Italian-style bread crumbs, since this is an Italian recipe, but regular bread crumbs will also work.
- Pasta shapes: This recipe is best with tiny pieces of pasta. Acini di Pepe pasta - small dots of pasta - is my favorite in this recipe, but Orzo or ditalini pasta will also work. In a pinch, I would also use smaller shapes, like macaroni.
- Baby spinach: Any green that will wilt quickly will work in this soup; I like baby spinach or baby kale, and chopped-up swiss chard leaves will also work. If all you have are tougher greens, like mustard greens or collard greens, add them to the soup before pressure cooking.
- Tomatoes: I don't use tomatoes in my Italian Wedding Soup; I never have, but I didn't know why. It turns out that Wedding Soup was a classic in the Naples area long before tomatoes were brought over from the New World, so they were never part of the recipe. That said, if you insist on adding tomatoes, add a can of diced tomatoes with the broth.
Step-by-Step Pictures of Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup
Shape the meatballs
Mix the meatball ingredients then roll into 1-inch meatballs (or cheat and use a cookie scoop like I did here.)
Sauté the soffrito
Heat the olive oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté, then sauté the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and herbs.
Everything in the pot
Add the broth and pasta, then add the raw meatballs one by one into the pot.
Pressure Cook for 10 minutes
Pressure cook on high pressure for 10 minutes with a natural pressure release.
Stir in the spinach, then serve
Stir in fresh ground black pepper and the spinach, stir until the spinach wilts, then serve.
Print
Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 quarts of soup 1x
Ingredients
Meatballs for Italian Wedding Soup
- 1 pound ground turkey (or ground beef, or meatloaf mix)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup (about 1 ounce) finely grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup Panko bread crumbs (or Italian-style bread crumbs)
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb mix (or dried oregano)
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
- 2 large garlic cloves, grated or finely minced1 egg, beaten
Italian Wedding Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped into ½-inch dice
- 2 large carrots, cut into ½-inch dice
- 2 ribs celery, cut into ½-inch dice
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 cups homemade turkey broth (or homemade chicken broth, or low-sodium store-bought broth)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (only if using homemade broth)
- ½ cup Acini di Pepe pasta (or orzo or ditalini pasta)
- Meatballs (from above)
- 2 cups packed baby spinach (or baby kale)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Shape the meatballs (or use frozen): In a large bowl, break up the ground turkey. Sprinkle the salt, pepper, grated Parmesan, bread crumbs, dried herbs, minced parsley, and garlic cloves over the meat. Work the dry ingredients into the meat until evenly mixed. Add the egg and work it into the meat. Scoop the meatballs with a small cookie scoop, or roll the meat mixture into balls to make 1-inch meatballs. (Or buy bite-sized frozen meatballs, about 1-inch in diameter or smaller).
- Sauté the aromatics: Heat the olive oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode - High (or medium-high heat in a stovetop pressure cooker) until the oil starts to shimmer. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, and sprinkle with the red pepper flakes and ½ teaspoon of salt. Sauté until the onions soften, about 8 minutes.
- Everything in the pot: Stir in the turkey broth (and 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt if using homemade broth), and scrape the bottom of the pot with a flat-edged wooden spoon to make sure nothing is sticking. Stir in the Acini di Pepe pasta, then gently add the meatballs, one at a time, to the pot.
- Pressure Cook for 10 minutes with a Natural Release: Lock the lid and pressure cook at high pressure for 10 minutes (Use "Manual" or "Pressure Cook" mode in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 minutes. (If you're in a hurry, let the pressure come down for 15 minutes, then quick-release any remaining pressure.)
- Add the spinach and pepper, then serve: Unlock the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the hot steam. Stir in the spinach and fresh ground black pepper, and keep stirring until the spinach wilts, about 2 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls, serve, and enjoy!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Italian
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 278
- Sugar: 3.1 g
- Sodium: 664.5 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.5 g
- Fiber: 2.6 g
- Protein: 22.3 g
- Cholesterol: 66 mg
Tips and Tricks
- ½ cup of pasta with 8 cups of broth: ½ cup may not look like much pasta, but it is plenty. If you add more, you'll wind up with a stew instead of a soup, as the pasta sucks up all the liquid in the pot.
- Homemade broth: I already mentioned this in the ingredients notes, but...homemade broth is the key to a fantastic soup. If you have an Instant Pot, it's simple and easy to make and takes much less time than on the stovetop. I make batches of chicken broth throughout the year, and freeze them in 1-quart jars for soups and stews. And, on Thanksgiving, when I have a turkey carcass or two, I make a huge batch of turkey broth to tide me over through the winter months. (Or at least into January - I make a lot of soups in the winter.)
- Make meatballs with a small cookie scoop: Hand-rolling small meatballs is time consuming, so I use a small cookie scoop to speed up the process. (Or, if you have a large cookie scoop, you can make this recipe with large meatballs - pressure cook for 12 minutes on high instead of 10 minutes).
What to serve with Italian Wedding Soup
I serve with a pepper grinder and red pepper flakes on the table, to add more to the soup right before I eat it. (More grated parmesan is also good, as is some minced parsley for garnish). Italian Wedding Soup is perfect as the center of a Soup, Salad, and Bread meal, so that is how I almost always serve it, with a Caesar salad and a crusty boule of rustic bread. (Or a loaf of squishy Italian bread.)
Make Ahead
You can make the meatballs ahead of time; freeze them and store them in a zip-top bag. With jars of frozen homemade broth, you can make soup directly from the freezer: thaw the broth in the microwave while you sauté the vegetables, then add the frozen meatballs to the pot before pressure cooking.
Storing Leftovers
Leftover soup stores beautifully. It will last for a couple of days in the refrigerator, and can be frozen for up to six months. I freeze the soup in 2-cup storage containers, so I have lunch-sized portions of Italian Wedding soup for a hot lunch from the microwave.
Related Posts
If you're looking for a different soup, try my Pressure Cooker Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass Soup, Instant Pot Day-After-Thanksgiving Lemon Turkey and Orzo Soup, or Instant Pot Tortellini Soup.
For other classic Italian recipes, try my Pressure Cooker Venetian Pasta and Beans (Pasta e Fagioli alla Veneta), Instant Pot Ragu Tucci, Instant Pot Venetian Peas and Rice (Risi e Bisi), or Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto (Risotto ai Funghi).
For other soup ideas, check out my Instant Pot Turkey Carcass Soups recipe list.
If you're looking for something else, here is my index of Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes.
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Mike Vrobel says
Try it, it's fantastic!