This Italian Wedding Soup was known to me as a child as escarole soup. Tasty and warms the soul on a stormy night.
See my “Tomato Sauce” recipe for the meatball recipe.
This soup only has a few ingredients, the meatballs do all the work flavoring the soup.
Italian wedding soup
Ingredients;
Meatball recipe
32oz low sodium beef stock, one or two depending on the escarole size
one can beef consomme’ plus 2 cans of water
1 cup uncooked Ditalini pasta
med onion minced
1 head fresh escarole
Grated Parmesan cheese
Directions;
Make my meatball recipe using 8oz to 16oz of meat and reduce the size of the meat balls to rounded teaspoon size, Saute’ them in a frying pan or broil for a few minutes. Place the partially cooked meatballs into a pot large enough to fit the beef stock and the escarole. Wash the escarole thoroughly and cut it into small 1 inch pieces.
Simmer the stock, consomme, meatballs, onion, pasta and escarole covered for about 45 minutes. Serve with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.
Braciola is a classic Italian dish known as involtini or little bundles.
It is most commonly made with beef but depending on the region it can be veal, chicken or fish. You can grill, saute or simmer it.
The stuffing has many many variations.
I’ll list some at the end of the recipe.
preparing Braciola
Ingredients;
Two long thin slices of beef top round London broil.
Your butcher can cut and pound them for you
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Peccorino Romano cheese
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 TBLS fresh minced Italian parsley
drizzle of olive oil
Braciola
Directions;
Lay the beef slices out and drizzle with olive oil. Spread the garlic on them and then the balance of ingredients. Roll them half way and cut the meat in two. Secure the roll with a few toothpicks on each side and the center if needed. Continue to roll the other half of the beef and repeat securing them.
Cooking variations;
**Saute in olive oil and butter in a frying pan and then add a little red wine to simmer them maybe 10-15 minutes.
**Grill them for a few minutes on each side
**Add them to the tomato sauce you are preparing from my blog library
Stuffing variations;
**sprinkle pine nuts
**sprinkle currants
**add minced Pancetta or Proscuitto
**add a filet of anchovy
**add chopped hard boiled egg
I thought I’d publish this Cherry Pie recipe in honor of our first President. It’s so juicy and full of flavor. A hit at any time of year !!
Cherry pie
Ingredients;
Make my perfect pie crust recipe or buy pie crust rolls
4 cups fresh(pitted) or frozen tart cherries
1 cup sugar
4 TBLS cornstarch
1 TSP almond extract
Dash nutmeg
1 TBLS butter, to dot
1 TBLS coarse sugar, to sprinkle
Directions;
Preheat oven to 375.
In a medium saucepan place over med heat. Cover. After the cherries lose considerable juice, which may take a few minutes, remove from heat. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cornstarch together. Pour this mixture into the hot cherries and mix well. Add the almond extract, nutmeg and mix. Return the mixture to the stove and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let cool. If the filling is too thick, add a little water, too thin, add a little more cornstarch.
Prepare your crust. Divide in half. Roll out each piece large enough to fit into an 8 to 9-inch pan. Pour cooled cherry mixture into the crust. Dot with butter. Moisten edge of bottom crust. Place top crust on and flute the edge of the pie.
Make a slit in the middle of the crust for steam to escape.
OR
Cut lattice strips and place over pie. Sprinkle the crust with coarse sugar.
Cover the pie crust edge with strips of foil to keep them from browning too much. Remove the foil strips after 30 minutes of baking.
Bake until crust is lightly browned, about 50 minutes.
This buttery shortbread will be a family favorite for sure.
Decorate Shortbread cookies for the season using candy decor, sparkling sugar or dip them in chocolate.
Shortbread cookies
Ingredients;
3 sticks of unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar plus more for decoration
1 TSP vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 TSP salt
1 container Bakers milk/dark chocolate for dipping
Directions;
Preheat oven to 350.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
At this point you can press into a 9×9 pan, or a shortbread baking dish, you can sprinkle the top with sugar.
If you want to use cookie cutters then roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle with sugar if you like.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown.
If pressed into a pan you’ll want to cut your cookie size before it cools. Allow to cool to room temperature before removing from the pan.
When the cookies are cool. Microwave the Bakers chocolate according to the container directions. Dip or brush half the cookie or drizzle the entire cookie with chocolate as you desire. Place the cookies back on the parchment lined sheet and let them sit until the chocolate is firm. You can refrigerate them for a few minutes to finish firming up the chocolate.
