Soup with baby meatballs.
We've got about three cups of rotisserie chicken,
three quarters of a pound of super lean ground beef,
a little breadcrumb
that we're going to moisten with some milk right now
for our baby meatballs.
So chop up the greens, two ribs of celery,
one large onion or two small, four cloves of garlic
and two carrots.
The biggest, most beautiful bay leaf
I've ever seen in my life is also going into the pod.
Now, normally, I add garlic much later to the pan
but we have so much veg going in here it's not gonna burn.
It's gonna sweat.
All we have to do is add a little kosher salt
or fine sea salt to this and then look what's gonna happen.
All we do is coat all the veg with a little bit of EVOO
which covered the bottom of the pot
so say three tablespoons, three slow turns of the pan
and then we're gonna partially cover.
What does that mean?
Let a little bit of steam escape
but trap most of the heat.
The breadcrumb is now moist.
It absorbed every bit of the milk.
We're good there.
The rest of the moisture comes from the egg and texture.
We're gonna add one egg
to the three quarter pound of very lean sirloin.
Half a cup of grated cheese.
Pecorino, Parm or a combo.
And then here are your flavor elements.
Parsley.
A good fat tablespoon of parsley.
Oregano.
This is all dried of course.
Granulated onion, granulated garlic.
Oregano, onion and garlic all about a teaspoon.
Just the parsley gets the heavy hand there.
A good fat drizzle of olive oil around the bowl
and a little salt and black or red pepper
for the meat itself.
You mix all this stuff together, this deliciousness together
and once you get those breadcrumbs incorporated,
you're done.
You don't wanna overmix it.
You don't wanna make 'em tight.
You take the tiniest bit of meat
kind of the size of a nickel, little bigger than a dime
and you're done.
We do not want to drop them in
until everybody's done though of course.
Like shapes and sizes, same cooking time, right?
So I'm gonna roll a whole lot of baby meatballs
and when those vegetables sweat,
we're going to add two and a half quarts of liquid.
Now, that can be vegetable stock
if you're making a vegetarian version.
It can be two quarts of chicken stock.
It can be a little bone broth.
It can be water mixed with chicken stock.
You're still gonna get the flavor from the meat cooking,
the dumplings cooking and the rotisserie chicken
if you're eating it with chicken.
All of that flavor's gonna be in there.
You're gonna be fine.
Now, I am just shredding up one head of escarole
or you can buy a 12 ounce bundle
or bunch of medium spinach to wilt in.
And we're cooking our dumplings
and then we're gonna add about a half a pound of our pasta.
Okay?
About a half a package.
And this is cavatelli.
So we're gonna stir that together
and let it cook in the soup to thicken it.
Now, if you wanted to serve this over many days,
I strongly suggest cooking the pasta on the side
so that it does not become overcooked.
So we're gonna add the chicken in.
We have so much protein in this dish and so many vegetables.
The very last thing,
once we let these meatballs go another six, seven minutes
and the pasta is almost there, al dente,
to the tooth, to the bite, when it's just about there,
that's when we add the greens
because we just wanna wilt them in there
and keep them tender crisp.
I'm taking out the bay leaf.
It's done its job.
We're going to add that little squirt of lemon juice.
It's traditional in my family
whenever we make a soup like this.
Grab the ladle.
Honey, are you excited?
I am indeed
as I hold the camera precipitously above the pot.
Oh, so gorgeous.