I’ve hit the jackpot! I discovered a way for my children to eat spinach without complaining. In fact, they ASK for it! Scratch that…BEG for it! What’s the secret? My 4-Ingredient Italian Wedding Soup. This recipe is seriously the easiest Italian Wedding Soup recipe you will ever make.

The Story Behind Our Italian Wedding Soup

So here’s the story behind the soup…I call it my OWN but really I should credit my MOM. Mom was craving Italian Wedding Soup and found this delicious, top-rated recipe from good + simple. Making it was a labor of love but, man, was worth it because we LOVED it. The recipe is absolutely delicious!! The girls scarfed it up and I was right there with them throwing elbows going in for more. BUT…like I said, making hundreds of teeny meatballs was quite a time commitment. Alyssa, the creator of the good+simple recipe suggests making and freezing extra meatballs and/or extra batches of soup so you don’t have to go through the process multiple times. I agree with her on that recommendation. Well, Mom continued to make the recipe because we all loved it so much but the time commitment began to weigh on her. Then she had a lightbulb moment…

The Game Changing Ingredient

Mom recalls the moment she came up with the idea to use FROZEN meatballs versus making her own in the Italian Wedding Soup. She said she literally sat straight up in bed. Here’s the deal though…she had to test her idea so she made the soup with the frozen meatballs but didn’t tell us. After watching us scarf down bowl after bowl, she admitted that she had used Earth’s Best Mini Beef Meatballs for Kids. (Note this isn’t a sponsored post for Earth’s Best but this product is the closest ingredient we have found to making our own meatballs homemade.) She had the meatballs on-hand for my nephew and felt like the size, shape and flavor were similar to the meatballs she had been making.

After mom’s genius discovery, I decided to give the recipe a few tests both so I could bring this comfort recipe into my own house but also to be able to duplicate it as needed. Since then, I have made this recipe no less than 2 dozen times in the last 3 months. Maybe more. And, of course, the best part of is that it uses just 4 staple ingredients that I always have on-hand–frozen chopped spinach, frozen mini meatballs, tiny pasta and broth.

Be sure to check out the recipe below and let me know what you think. Then, add the soup to your dinner rotation, put the ingredients on your shopping list and get excited to try the flavor of an authentic Italian Wedding Soup that uses only FOUR ingredients.

Clever Tips When Making Italian Wedding Soup

1. Make sure the frozen spinach you purchase is chopped. Keep it frozen and add it (frozen) to the broth at the beginning of the recipe.
2. Vary your broth selections to vary the flavors. I usually use chicken broth but I have also made the soup with vegetable broth, beef broth or a combination. Often it just depends on what I have on hand.
3. We like using very tiny pasta for the soup. If you can find pastina (the little stars I use in this recipe), Acini de Pepe is a delicious option. We also like using ditalini.
4. If you have leftovers, note that the pasta will swell in the soup so you may want to keep extra broth for when you reheat the soup.

Are you a soup lover?

Do you love soup like we do? If so, be sure to check out my Slow Cooker Kale, Lentil and Sausage Soup, Tuscan Chicken and Sorgum Soup, and Creamy Potato Soup.

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Easiest Italian Wedding Soup

• Author: Holley Grainger
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
• Category: Main Dish, Lunch, Soup
• Cuisine: Italian

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Ingredients

• 96 ounces low-sodium broth (I use 3 32-oz cartons)
• 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach (unthawed )
• 5–6 ounces tiny pasta ((about 3/4–1 cup) I use ditallini or acini de pepe)
• 16 ounces frozen mini meatballs (I use 1 16-oz bag of Earth’s Best)

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Instructions

1. Bring broth and spinach to a boil in a Dutch oven. Once boiling, add pasta and meatballs. Reduce the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook 8-10 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Serve immediately.

Notes

Refrigerate leftovers in an air tight container. The pasta will continue to absorb the broth so it may be necessary to add extra broth to the soup when reheating.