This 30-while-30 recipe came out much better than the last one.  (What can I say, no one bats 1000 all the time!!) And, it is another favorite dish that for some reason I had never cooked until age 30!   Italian Wedding Soup has comfort food written all over it in my house, but usually we get it out of a can.  After making this recipe, I am not sure why - Italian Wedding Soup from scratch was incredibly easy and fantastically tasty!  It is also decidedly more healthy – it has only a fraction of the sodium, as is pretty much true when you compare any homemade soup to a canned soup. 

We used spinach fresh from our garden and used ground turkey rather than ground beef but otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely.  I personally loved the fact that the meatballs were not browned before cooking - they came out like tasty little meaty clouds that melted in the mouth - but you certainly could choose to brown your meatballs before you put them into your soup for even extra flavor. 

Italian Wedding Soup

Adapted from LikeitLoveit via Food.com

Mix together turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan and spices.  Roll into small (3/4 inch) meatballs.  In a stockpot, combine chicken broth, water, and boullion cube and bring to a boil.  Stir in chopped spinach, meatballs, and pasta.  Cook for at least 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and the pasta is done.  Enjoy!

Wow.  Do any flavors go together better than rosemary and olives?  If so, it’s gotta be pretty close, cause I’m pretty sure rosemary and olives were put on this earth to be eaten together.  Particularly in focaccia form.  I had never made focaccia before – so was definitely surprised at how fantastic this recipe came out.  It was seriously difficult to not eat this all in one day.  Somehow we managed to make it to daylight so I could snap a picture.

I highly recommend using a good quality pitted kalamata olive, as I think this is what made this bread so tasty.  There is a lot of rising and waiting – but it was worth it, as the texture was also absolutely perfect.  In the event you do not like olives – you can always just omit the rosemary and olives, and top this with whatever you like – cheese, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, or any topping that strikes your fancy.

Rosemary and Olive Focaccia

From epicurious.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water (105°F; to 115°F;)
• 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 4 1/2 cups (about) all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 24 pitted black olives (such as Kalamata), sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried)

Sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water; stir and let proof for about 10 minutes.  Mix together the flour, salt and the yeast mixture until well combined – the dough may seem sticky.  Knead on a floured surface until the dough is smooth and stretchy.  Place the dough in an oiled bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 90 minutes until doubled.  Punch dough down, and knead back into a ball.  Cover, and let rise for an additional 45 minutes until doubled again.  Punch dough down again.  Prepare a cookie sheet by greasing lightly with 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Press the dough into a rectangle shape using your finger tips.  Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.  Drizzle the dough with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Sprinkle the olives evenly over the dough.  Let the dough rise for about 25 minutes, or until puffy.  Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.  Press dough down with fingertips, creating little indentations all over the dough.    Bake for 20 minutes, or until the dough is lightly browned.  Enjoy!

Since the New Year, I’ve been making an extra effort to create a thorough meal plan for the week. In doing this, I’ve also been taking more time to flip through cookbooks and search out new recipes. During my last pass, two recipes caught my eye: Ellie Krieger’s Tuscan Vegetable Soup (from The Food You Crave) and Cooking Light’s Tuscan Chicken Soup (from The Best of Cooking Light: Everyday Favorites)

Both had some sort of tomato product, chicken broth, spinach, onion and cannellini beans. I liked that the Cooking Light recipe incorporated chicken and roasted red peppers, while Ellie Krieger’s had more vegetables. I combined the best of both worlds, adding mushrooms in place of carrots and celery and substituting dried basil and oregano for thyme and sage. In my house, you never have too many mushrooms or too much oregano! I was happy to have the opportunity to use my homemade roasted red peppers.

The finished product was attractive and delicious. Served with crusty bread, it was a perfect dinner!

Tuscan Chicken Vegetable Soup

Yields 6 Servings

1 15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup diced zucchini (about 1 medium)
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms (about 10 oz)
1/2 cup diced roasted red pepper
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 15 oz. can plain no-salt-added tomato sauce (or diced tomatoes w/ juices)
1 cup diced, cooked chicken
1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach *
1/8 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic minced)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano

1. In a small bowl, mash half of the beans with the back of a spoon and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, zucchini and mushrooms and saute, stirring frequently until the vegetables are tender (about five minutes).
3. Add the broth and tomato sauce. Season with garlic powder, pepper, basil and oregano.
4. Add the chicken and whole beans. Bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to medium. Add spinach and mashed bean (stir well to dissolve). Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes.

* You can either heat the spinach ahead of time, or allow it to defrost in the soup.

Sunday marked the first snowfall of the year. A cold, wintry day calls for a warm hearty dinner. I love this recipe for Pasta e Fagioli. Since this soup is best when simmered for about an hour, it’s perfectly suited for weekend evenings when one has time to hang out in the kitchen. Preparing the vegetables was also a time-consuming process for me, as it took me awhile to julienne the carrots.

Due to copyright restrictions, I am unable to post the recipe here. However, you can find it on Top Secret Recipes. The flavor of this pasta e fagioli soup is very similar to the one found at Olive Garden, but this soup is thicker and seems to contain more pasta.

I have made very few changes to the original recipe. Due to personal preferences, I used crushed tomatoes in place of diced tomatoes and substituted ground turkey for ground beef. I also omitted the chopped celery, adding 1/4 tsp of celery salt for flavor.

When I prepared the pasta e fagioli soup this time, I found that the finished product was too thick, so I added 1 cup of chicken broth a few minutes before I served the soup. Next time, I might cut down on the pasta. According to Top Secret Recipes, this recipe yields 8 servings. In my experience, it yields 8 large servings! I’m going to try freezing some of the leftovers to keep on hand for quick weeknight meals.