Easy Sicilian meatball soup with pastina (minestra di badduzze)
Super simple to make and absolutely delicious, this Sicilian meatball soup has tiny tender meatballs cooked in a beef broth along with pastina. Once the soup is ready, it’s finished off with beaten eggs mixed with pecorino, like in stracciatella! In fact, it’s practically a stracciatella with meatballs.
Servings: 4
Calories: 560kcal
Equipment
- 1 large soup pot or Dutch oven
- 1 large bowl to mix meatball ingredients
- 1 tray covered with oven paper to keep meatballs on
- 1 sharp knife to chop garlic and parsley
- 1 chopping board
Ingredients
- 7 ounces pastina I used orzo
- 14 ounces ground veal or beef or pork
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped
- 1 bunch fresh parsley washed and chopped
- 0.5 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 5 ounces Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano grated
- 4 eggs
- salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper.
- 4 pints beef broth homemade or store bought.
Instructions
Beef broth
- If you plan to make your own beef bone broth, you will need to start it well in advance or even the day before because it takes at least 4-5 hours to make. However, I regularly make homemade broth to use in soups, stews and ragus. I freeze jars of it for later use which allows me to make recipes like this soup quickly. For broth recipe see my recipe for homemade pastina but omit the tomatoes.
Make the meatballs
- Peel and chop the garlic, wash and chop the parsley and break 2 eggs into a small bowl and whisk.
- Put the ground veal (beef or pork) in a large mixing bowl bowl. Add chopped garlic and parsley and use your hands to mix them into the meat.
- Now, add the eggs and mix again. Then half the grated cheese and nutmeg as well as salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Combine everything together until it’s thoroughly mixed.
- Shape the meat mixture into hazelnut size meatballs and place them on a tray covered with parchment paper. You may need two trays. We made 100 meatballs following this recipe, equivalent to 25 per person if serving 4.
Make your Sicilian meatball soup
- Bring the broth to a simmer in a large pot or Dutch oven over a medium-high heat. Then add the meatballs. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add a pinch of sea salt and the pastina to the simmering broth and meatballs and cook until the pasta is al dente (5-10 minutes). Turn off the heat.
- Add the rest of the grated cheese to the whisked eggs and whisk again. Pour the eggs and cheese mixture into the hot soup whilst stirring with a spoon.
- Serve your Sicilian meatball soup immediately with extra grated cheese and a little more chopped parsley if required.
Nutrition
Calories: 560kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 48g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 282mg | Sodium: 2338mg | Potassium: 745mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 1585IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 468mg | Iron: 5mg