I can’t remember where it was that I had the most delicious Italian Wedding Soup of my life – possibly the only Italian Wedding Soup of my life – but when Chris and I saw this recipe for the soup in this month’s Food Network Magazine, we knew it had the potential to be quite scrumptious. And it was! Check it out!

First start out with a small onion, 3 carrots and 2 cloves of garlic all finely chopped. I loved this step because Logan pulled a stool over to me in the kitchen and asked if I would teach him how to peel the carrots. He loved it and offered to peel carrots for me anytime I needed him to!

Prepare 2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce and two teaspoons of chopped sage.

Add half of these to the pot with the carrots, onion and garlic, after they have cooked and softened for about 4 minutes.

Then add 3 cups of chicken stock and 3 cups of water.

As well as the Parmesan rind.

After it begins boiling, reduce heat and cover until the vegetables soften, about 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare a half pound of ground pork…

…and 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs. The recipe suggests Panko, but since the grocery store was out, I used the standard variety – they worked just fine.

Combine the pork, bread crumbs and the other half of the Worchestershire sauce, garlic and chopped sage . Mix together.

After the 7 minutes of simmering soup is up, add 3/4 Orzo and let it cook for 6 minutes.

Form the pork mixture into 1-inch meatballs and add to the boiling soup and cook for 4 minutes.

Or until they are firm and float to the top of the pot.

(The recipe also calls for baby spinach, but in keeping with my notorious ways of  always forgetting at least one item from the recipe, well, the spinach was it.)

 I don’t know it the spinach would have added much. It was very delicious, hearty and fulfilling. I certainly recommend this recipe for weekend cooking…or even week night because it’s easy and doesn’t take too much time. Unless, of course, you have a young partner with you learning the ropes. But that’s worth it!