Italian Wedding Soup

Fresh snow!

When it's cold and snowy outside I love to make a big pot of soup and fresh bread for dinner. This soup definitely eats like a meal with all the different ingredients and textures.

I loosely based this recipe off of Full Fork Ahead with some modifications to allow for less dishes, ingredients and time.

Whenever I'm chopping up vegetables I save any scraps that could be used for chicken stock later. Think onion or carrot peels, carrot/celery ends, garlic skins, herb stems and things like that. I keep a gallon size freezer bag in the freezer for this. When I have 2 full of vegetables and chicken bones I make stock.

Ingredients

-1-2 tablespoons of oil (olive, canola, etc)
-1 diced onion
-2 cloves of garlic minced
-1 cup diced carrots
-3/4 cup diced celery
-1/2 cup white wine-- This is not a necessity...but if you're opening a bottle anyways you might as well!
-8 cups low sodium chicken stock
-1 cup small pasta
-12 ounces baby spinach/arugula mix
-1 lb fresh chicken sausage, casings removed (choose a flavor you love, I picked tomato basil)
-a pinch or 2 of red pepper flakes (if you like it spicy)

1.) Heat your oil in a stock pot or dutch oven. Once the oil is hot add the onions and saute until translucent
2.) Add the garlic, carrots and celery and cook until the veggies have softened
3.) Deglaze the pot with white wine and scrape any brown bits off the bottom. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer.
4.) Roll the chicken sausage into small meatballs and drop into the pot, stir occasionally to make sure the meatballs don't stick together.
5.) Adjust the heat to keep the soup at a simmer. After about 5 minutes add the pasta and continue simmering the soup until the pasta is cooked.
6.) After the ingredients are all cooked, add the spinach and stir until wilted. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.
7.) Serve with bread for dipping and maybe some Parmesan cheese to top it all off!