Monday, January 27, 2020

Rigatoni and Meatball Soup

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Remember my friend, Kathy? The one who talked me into buying the Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt Pan, and making the Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake? She seems to get me into a lot of trouble. The other day on Facebook, she tagged me in a recipe for rigatoni and meatball soup. Italian food is one of her favorite things, and she thought the soup looked wonderful. Naturally, I had to make it for her. I adapted it to suit my own tastes and favorite ingredients (like I do), and took some over to her. She proclaimed it “Fabulous! The best soup [she] has ever eaten.” I can’t argue with that. Take it from Kathy, this soup recipe is a good one!
Rigatoni and Meatball Soup
Adapted from The Cozy Apron

Meatball Ingredients:
1 lb. ground chuck
½ c.
Italian breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten to blend
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried parsley
1 T. dried minced onion
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
½ T.
Melissa’s minced garlic
2 T. whole milk
2 T. olive oil, for sautéing

Soup Ingredients:
Olive oil (about 2 T.)
1 3-oz. pkg.
Melissa’s shallots, chopped
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried parsley
Pinch salt

Pinch freshly ground black pepper
Pinch red pepper flakes
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 T. tomato paste
¼ c. dry red wine
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes
6 c. chicken stock
1 T. chopped flat-leaf parsley
8 oz. uncooked
rigatoni, cooked 2 mins. less than package instructions
2 c. grated mozzarella cheese (¼ c. per serving)

Preparation:
Crumble ground chuck into a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients; gently mix together just until combined. Using a tablespoon, scoop up portions of the mixture, and roll between your palms to form meatballs.

Place a large soup pot over medium-high heat and drizzle in about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Once the pot is hot, add meatballs, and brown on all sides. When the meatballs are browned, transfer to a plate or bowl to hold; drizzle in a touch more olive oil (if needed), and add the shallots.

Sauté the shallots, scraping up the good bits from the meatballs as much as possible; add dried basil, dried oregano, dried parsley, a pinch of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes; stir for a couple minutes until things soften.

Add garlic and stir until it becomes aromatic (about 1 minute), add tomato paste, and stir to incorporate, about 30 seconds or so; add the red wine to deglaze, and after about 20 seconds, add tomatoes, chicken stock, and flat leaf parsley.

Simmer the soup for about 15 minutes; then, using a blender or a hand-held immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth.

Add the reserved meatballs, and bring to a gentle simmer; simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes more until the meatballs are tender.

To serve, place ½ cup of the cooked rigatoni into a bowl, and ladle in some of the soup (about 1½ cups) along with 4 meatballs; top with ¼ cup grated mozzarella cheese, and either enjoy immediately, or place under the broiler for a minute to melt and slightly brown the cheese.



6 comments:

Linda said...

I bet this really IS the best soup ever! I can almost taste it. Lucky Kathy! :)

kitty@ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen said...

Ooooh Pattie, how I wish you were my neighbor! I am down with the flu and had to make myself some chicken soup, but how wonderful and comforting it would be to have this soup! A big slice of your chocolate bundt cake from your pretty pan would be great to top it off with.

jmac said...

Yep!! Making this one!!!

Unknown said...

how do you print from this recipe page?

Pattie @ Olla-Podrida said...

I’m sorry there is no longer a “print” button. When Google sites changed everything, I seemed to lose the ability to do that. The best way to print from this page is to highlight the text, copy it, and paste it into another document e.g. Word, for printing.

Alycia Nichols said...

I’m nearly 2 years late on this one! I think we were probably just moving back home from my Mom’s house when you posted this, so I missed it along with a slew of others. I’ll give it a whirl soon!!!