Italian Meatball Soup
Form small beef-Parmesan meatballs, soften onion, carrots, and celery, then simmer the meatballs in tomato broth until cooked through. Add pasta until al dente and finish with spinach, basil, and Parmesan.
There is something deeply satisfying about a soup that has actual meatballs floating around in it. Not crumbles. Not “Italian-inspired protein.” Real little meatballs made from beef or sausage, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, egg, garlic, and Italian seasoning, simmered right in the broth with tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and oregano. Keep them small—about a tablespoon each—because the point is to get meatball, broth, pasta, and maybe a leaf of spinach onto the same spoon without needing civil engineering.
The meatballs cook uncovered in the simmering broth for 10 to 12 minutes and need to reach 165°F before the pasta goes in. Adding the pasta afterward matters because small shells or ditalini only need their normal package time; putting everything in at once would leave you negotiating between undercooked beef and pasta with the structural integrity of wallpaper paste.
Spinach goes in for the final minute, just long enough to wilt, and fresh basil plus extra Parmesan finish the bowl. The broth stays savory and tomato-rich, the vegetables keep it from feeling like a bowl of meatballs with witnesses, and the pasta gives it enough heft to count as dinner.
