Italian Wedding Soup

1 lb ground chicken
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
1 large onion
1 bell pepper
1 carrot
3-5 zucchini and/or yellow squash
1 can Cannellini beans
2 boxes chicken broth
Star pasta

This is one of my favorite dishes in the world. I mean, look how good it looks:



It takes a bit longer to make than the typical weeknight meal that I make, but it is so good.

I normally make a big batch and then left overs all week. I even serve left overs of this if I have company.

The vegetables in this soup I vary with the seasons. In the winter, I add traditional dark greens to the soup (escarole or spinach) and in the summer, I like the squash.

First things first. The timing of this soup is important - that is there will be a step where you need to add the veggies quickly to the pot. So I do all my chopping of veggies up front.

Dice the onion and bell pepper and carrot rather small but leave the squash in large chunks.

Now for the meatballs. Two keys to making delicious chicken meatballs for this soup. First, make sure all the balls are about the same size. Second make sure the balls are all very very small. You want small meatballs for this soup.

Here's how I accomplish this:

First I cover my counter in parchment paper so I have a flat surface to work on that I don't have to worry about cleaning chicken goop off of later. Also, I take the rings off my fingers so they don't get chicken in them.

I pour out the breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper into a little pile on the center of the paper.

Then I plop the ground chicken onto the pile of spices and with my clean hands, I mix the chicken into the dry ingredients. I use the wet chicken to pick up any stray dry ingredients. I mix until everything is one consistency - that is, until I have no clumps of chicken without any of the dry mixture.

Next, I form the meat into one giant ball. I divide the giant ball into four quadrants of equal size. Then I take each quadrant and subdivide it into smaller pieces until I have several balls of equal size.

They will be more like blobs of meat at this point - not super meatball shaped yet.

I repeat this with the other quadrants until I've used up all of the giant ball.

Then I divided each meatball into two because I realized I had made them too large.

You want one meatball to fit easily on a spoon with room for veggies and pasta.

After I got the meatballs to the right size, I rolled each ball in my palms - like with play dough - to make them more round and meatball-like.

The next step is to heat a wide pot with oil. You want as much real-estate on the bottom of the pot as possible so you won't have to make too many batches of meatballs. As it is, this recipe will make at least two batches. I find that if I try to squeeze them all into one batch, they stick together and some of them burn before I can get them all turned.

Using tongs, set about half of the meatballs in the hot oil.

Watch the meatballs. When the first ones you put into the pot start to turn white on the bottom, you are getting close. When the white reaches nearly the middle of the meatball, it's time to flip it over.

Using the tongs, flip each meatball to cook the other side. Because these have cheese in them, they might stick to the pot a little. Normally, meat will "tell you it's ready" by being easy to lift out of the pan when it is browned on one side. But these will probably stick a bit as the cheese is melting to the pan. Just be forceful and they will come up.

When they start to turn white on the other side, you can take them out. Don't worry if some of them haven't cooked all the way through - you will be boiling them in the soup and they can finish cooking then.

Using tongs, set the meatballs on a large plate covered in a paper towel to collect any access oil.

The pan will be empty and can get overheated very easily, so quickly add in the chopped "hard" veggies - that is the onion, the bell pepper and the carrot.

Add salt and pepper and stir.

The squash can be set aside for later - it needs less cooking time.

After a few minutes, add the squash. Season and stir.

Next, add the chicken meatballs and the beans. Be sure to drain the liquid off the beans before you add them to the pot.

Season and stir.

Cover the ingredients with chicken broth. This batch took 1 1/4 boxes of broth to cover up. If you run out of broth, just add water.

Cover the pot and bring it up to a boil. While it is heating up, grate 2-3 cloves of garlic. I use a microplane so that the garlic turns into almost a paste. This way it almost melts into the pot.

Add the garlic to the pot. Stir and then let it boil for at least 20 minutes. I had mine on for almost an hour before serving.

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Now for the star pasta. 

Star pasta can be hard to find in the store. My HEB keeps it in the Italian imported foods section and not with the other pastas. It's worth an extra look or two to find, as it makes for a delicious addition. 

I've found that if I make a large batch of this soup and then heat it up over the week, the pasta gets mushy. So I take a ladle and remove some of the soup from the main pot and fill up a smaller put which I cook the pasta in. 

I store the pasta separately in the fridge so it doesn't get mushy. 

I serve the soup with a little scoop of the pasta, two scoops of the soup and then sprinkled with parmesan cheese. 

Now doesn't that look delicious?? 

Enjoy!

Roasted chicken with potatoes and pan gravy

1 whole chicken, giblets removed

3 shallots or 1 large red onion

3 - 4 small lemons

1 lb of small potatoes 

1 stick of butter

herbs (like rosemary or thyme)

garlic

salt and pepper

flour

white wine

chicken broth

Special equipment: Roasting pan, string

Preheat the oven to 425. 

Just a note, anytime you are working with raw chicken, make sure that you wash your hands after each time you handle the chicken. 

This was actually my first attempt at roasting a whole chicken. It turned out really well and it was pretty simple, once I got the hang of things. 

Cut some lemons in quarters. 

Rince of the inside and outside of the chicken with cold water. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. pour salt and pepper in the cavity. Add garlic cloves, lemon quarters and rosemary stalks to the inside of the cavity. 

I ended up removing the rosemary because I was worried it would burn. My chicken was small and I couldn't fit everything inside it. 

Melt the stick of butter. Brush the chicken generously with butter. Then sprinkle lots and lots of salt and pepper on the buttered skin. This will make a delicious crust. I had some extra lemons cut up so I added them to the roasting pan. 

Set the chicken on the grate in the roasting pan. If you don't have a grate, you can set the chicken directly on the potatoes. 

Speaking of potatoes, cut the larger potatoes in half and leave the smaller potatoes whole. Cut up the shallots (or red onion) and add those to the roasting pan. I also added more cloves of garlic. 

Pour the remaining butter on the vegetables and add salt and pepper. Toss all the vegetables together so that they are all coated in the butter and seasonings. 

Add the chicken in the grate back to the pan. The juices from the chicken will drip onto the vegetables when they cook and make them delicious. 

Take a piece of string and tie the legs together. 

Put the roasting pan in the center of the oven. Bake for 1 hour or until the juices from the thigh run clear when you stick the thigh with your knife. 

When it comes out, it will be brown and delicious. 

BE VERY CAREFUL when taking the roasting pan out of the oven. I tend to forget that the pan remains 400+ degrees for a very long time after it is removed from the oven. I have several scars on my arm from past roasting pan uses. Hence, I'm a little crazy about roasting pan handling. 

The skin will be crispy and flavorful. So yummy. 

Using oven mits, remove the grate with the chicken and set it aside to rest for 10 - 20 minutes. This way the juices from the chicken will settle back into the meat and make it moist. 

Scoop out the potatoes and onions and set them aside on a platter. 

What is left on the pan is delicious chicken drippings. Remember, the pan is still hot. 

Turn the pan sideways so that it covers two burners on the stove. Turn on both burners. Keep in mind, the pan is still hot. And now you are heating it even more. So be careful. 

Sprinkle flour over the juices. Is the pan still hot? Yep. 

Whisk this into a paste and add a splash of white wine. Let it bubble for a bit, whisking the whole time. Should you grab the handle of the pan? Nope. It's still blazing hot. 

Add chicken broth to the pot, whisking it all together. Hot pan. 

Pour the gravy from the HOT PAN into a gravy dish or small bowl and set it aside for later. 

At this point in my chicken baking, my paranoia over the hot pan got the best of me and I put my pan in the sink and sprayed it with cold water until it cooled off and I could relax. 

Cut the meat off the bones. I concentrated on taking the breasts and the legs because those are the parts I like best. My husband also likes breasts and legs. 

I didn't worry about getting too much more of the meat off, because as you'll see in a post for tomorrow, I will use the carcass to help me make chicken soup, and the more meat on the bones, the better for the soup.  

On the platter, I started arranging the potatoes with the chicken pieces, but I got too hungry, so I stopped after the breasts. My house smelled like roasted chicken. It was time to eat. 

You can pour the gravy over the potatoes, the chicken or even over a piece of bread. I served mine up alongside some green beans. 

We both went back for seconds. 

Enjoy!

Fancy Toasts

Sliced bread (I like ciabatta bread) 

1 cup ricotta cheese

splash of milk

salt and pepper

Baby spinach leaves

1/2 onion, sliced

handfull of dried apricots

handfull of dried dates or figs

white wine

red wine

In a small bowl, combine cheese, milk, salt, and pepper. Stir until completely combined. Taste to see if it needs more salt and pepper. 

In a pan, saute onions with oil until they are soft and caramelized. 

In a pot, pour two cups of white wine and bring to a boil. Add apricots and boil for 10 minutes. Drain the apricots and slice them into thin slices. (If you want you can save the wine - once it's cold, it is delicious!)

Do the same thing with the red wine and figs. 

Lay out all the ingredients on a board. 

Toast the bread. Spread cheese on the toast. Add onions, apricot and spinach to some of the toasts. Add onions, figs and spinach to others.