Wedding soup facts for kids
Alternative names | Italian wedding soup, minestra maritata | ||||||
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Type | Soup | ||||||
Place of origin | Italy | ||||||
Main ingredients | Green vegetables (endive and escarole or cabbage, lettuce, kale, spinach), meat (meatballs, sausage), chicken broth | ||||||
71 kcal (297 kJ) | |||||||
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Wedding soup or Italian wedding soup is an Italian soup consisting of green vegetables and meat. It is popular in the United States, where it is a staple in many Italian restaurants.
Origin
The term wedding soup comes from the Italian language phrase minestra maritata ('married soup'), which is a reference to the flavor produced by the combination or "marriage" of greens and the meat. The minestra maritata recipe is also prepared by the families of Lazio and Campania. Some form of minestra maritata was long popular in Toledo, Spain, before pasta became an affordable commodity to most Spaniards.
Ingredients
Wedding soup consists of green vegetables (usually endive and escarole or cabbage, lettuce, kale, and/or spinach) and meat (usually meatballs and/or sausage, the latter sometimes made of chicken and containing Italian parsley and parmesan cheese) in a clear chicken-based broth. Wedding soup sometimes contains pasta (usually cavatelli, fusilli, acini di pepe, pastina, orzo, etc.), lentils, carrots, or grated parmesan cheese.