Italian Wedding Soup with Duck Meatballs
The La Crema Culinary Team’s Italian Wedding Soup with Duck Meatballs was a crowd-pleasing hit at this year’s Winter Wineland tasting event.
This soup is completely made from scratch, and involves a pretty detailed butchering of an entire duck. But, if you have access to a local specialty food store butcher, the lions share of the work (including grinding the duck meat and de-boning the bird) can be handled by a professional with professional equipment.
In the end, you will have a rich, earthy broth and succulent duck meatballs as a reward for your effort. And it pairs marvelously with our Russian River Pinot Noir.
Italian Wedding Soup with Duck Meatballs
Author: La Crema Culinary Team
Serves: 12
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 2 Tbsp. duck fat or oil
- ½ onion, minced (top & bottom reserved for soup)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb. pork butt, ground
- 1 whole duck, breasts & legs removed, deboned and ground (bones chopped into 3-inch pieces & reserved for soup)
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- ¼ cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme, picked & chopped (stems reserved for soup)
- 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
- ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
For the soup
- Reserved duck bones from meatball recipe, above
- 8 quarts water
- ½ cup red wine, such as Pinot Noir
- 3 stalks celery, diced (top & bottoms reserved)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Tbsp. duck fat or oil
- ½ onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb. maitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1 bunch kale, stems removed & cut into ½-inch strips
- 2 cups acini de pepe pasta
- 4 Tbsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
For the meatballs
- Preheat oven to 375⁰F.
- In a pan, add duck fat, minced onion and garlic. Cook over low heat until tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- In a large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Scoop out 65 (1-ounce) balls and roll in your hands to form.
- Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 7 minutes.
For the soup
- Preheat the oven to 375⁰F.
- Place the reserved duck bones in a roasting pan and roast until browned, approximately 20 minutes. Remove from oven, drain off the fat and place the bones in a large pot. Cover with 8 quarts water.
- Deglaze the roasting pan with wine, being sure to scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan; add this to the pot with the duck bones.
- Add reserved onion & celery scraps, thyme stems and bay leaf. Bring to a light boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 2 hours, skimming off any foam. Strain and reserve.
- In a pot, add duck fat, diced onion, celery and garlic. Cook over low heat until tender. Add reserved duck stock, mushrooms, kale and meatballs. Bring to a boil and add pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until pasta is tender, approximately 5 minutes.
Serving instructions
- Place 3-4 duck meatballs in a bowl and ladle soup over meatballs. Finish with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
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