Let’s Break This Down
Meatball soup is just about as TMP as can be. We love meatballs (they’re the perfect dinner food, end of story) and we make soup like it’s going out of style. So the whole concept of meatball soup is just right up our alley. In fact, this is not our first meatball soup recipe ever! Remember this beauty? Anyway, we loved that recipe so much that we just had to play around with the concept and see where else it could take us. And that playing around led us here! To this Italian herb-inflected, tomato-y soup recipe, studded simply with small Italian pork meatballs (or ground chicken works, too) and tiny pasta. For more meatball recipe ideas, check out our easy Italian Meatballs with red sauce, or scroll through all our favorite Meatball Recipes!
The Meatballs!
The tiny little 1-inch meatballs that buoy around in this soup are nothing short of classic Italian pork meatballs, on a smaller scale. All of our usual rules, tips and tricks apply—don’t over-mix the meatball ingredients, and wet your hands a bit as you roll the meatballs to keep the meatball mixture from sticking to your palms. Here’s what you’ll need for the meatballs:
- Ground pork. Or, if you’d like to keep things a bit leaner, it’s fine to use ground chicken.
- Egg
- Bread crumbs
- Fresh basil
- Garlic
- Italian seasoning
- Salt
The Soup!
So, here’s the reason why this soup is so easy—the ingredients in the soup itself overlap a LOT with the meatball ingredients. Less to keep track of (and less to think about grabbing from the store) is always a great thing, right? So, in addition to everything on the meatball ingredients list, you’ll need:
- Onion
- Olive oil
- Broth (chicken or vegetable—either works!)
- Canned tomatoes
- Pasta. Which brings us to.....
The Pasta!
The type of noodle you choose will make a bit of a difference in terms of texture (duh), but it’s fine to use what you have on hand—within reason. Long, thin pasta varieties aren’t the right choice for a meatball soup like this. Think bite-sized, tiny—something you might use in a minestrone! Here are four varieties of pasta that we especially love for this recipe:
- Ditalini
- Tubetti
- Rotelle (wagon wheels)
- Casarecce
Put It All Together and You’ve Got ITALIAN MEATBALL SOUP!
This recipe really is about as simple as they come, but we’ve pulled together a few tips and tricks for making sure that your tomato meatball soup really hits it out of the park.
Here’s how to make our easy meatball soup.
- Mix and roll the meatballs! If you’ve got helpers in the house, enlist their help! This is by far the most “work” of this easy soup recipe.
- Brown the meatballs! This takes about 8 minutes, and a set of kitchen tongs will come in VERY handy.
- Make soup! Sauté onion, then garlic to make a fragrant base, then dump in stock, water, salt, Italian seasoning, crushed tomatoes, meatballs and pasta.
- Simmer until the pasta is cooked!
- That’s it! You made meatball soup. Easy, huh?
Tools You’ll Need:
Italian Meatballs Forever and Ever.
We love all meatballs. We really do! We love red curry meatballs, and Swedish meatballs and Asian meatballs. But, for pure comfort, we turn to Italian meatballs. They’re classic, the ones we grew up with. They taste like home.
Meatball Soup for Supper? We Want To Hear About It!
If you try this easy meatball soup recipe, we’d love to know about it! Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see it & share it. Happy eating!
