“From the SCCC Kitchen” offers Daily Gazette readers tastes from Schenectady County Community College’s nationally accredited American Culinary Federation culinary arts program. Recipes selected by SCCC instructors can easily be prepared at home. Today, instructor David J. Wixted — also project coordinator for the New York State Hospitality Grant — cordially invites home chefs to try a marriage of vegetables, broth and meatballs in his hearty Italian Wedding Soup.

Summer might be peak time for weddings, but David J. Wixted says autumn is the perfect season for people to love celery, carrots, onions, pasta and meatballs.

SCCC instructor David J. Wixted invites home chefs to try a marriage of vegetables, broth and meatballs in his hearty Italian wedding soup.
Watch Video»

So he hopes food lovers will say “I do” to his version of Italian Wedding Soup.

“One of our professors said they’d never seen a red wedding soup; they’d always seen it white,” Wixted said. “Once again, that’s the great thing about cooking — there are so many variations. I’ve always made it with the beef stock, the chopped tomatoes and even a little tomato sauce.”

The soup also lets diners indulge their taste for meatballs — small ones. The balls of seasoned ground beef are bite-sized, and putting away seven or eight in a single bowl is a reasonable accomplishment. “It has a little bit of everything,” Wixted said, adding he believes people will especially enjoy the recipe during the holiday season. The soup is a one-course meal and will last several nights — it’s a time-saver during weeks when time can be scarce.

“When I make this at home, bread and butter and that’s it,” Wixted said. “That’s our whole meal right there. A bowl and a half of that with two or three pieces of bread and butter, and it fills you up.”

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP

2 ounces olive oil

4 to 5 celery stalks, medium diced

4 carrots (peeled) medium diced

1 large sweet onion, medium diced

4 to 5 cloves garlic, diced

14 ounces diced tomatoes

64 ounces beef broth

8 ounces tomato sauce

2 teaspoons beef base

About 80 to 90 meatballs

1⁄2 cup acini di pepe

8 to 10 ounces beef broth (added later when pasta is added)

2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

For meatball mix:

1 pound ground beef

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1⁄2 tablespoon basil

1⁄2 tablespoon oregano

4 ounces seasoned bread crumbs

In a six-quart stock pot, add the olive oil and heat for about one minute.

Sauté the celery, carrots, onion and garlic for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and sauté for an additional 5 minutes.

Add 64 ounces of beef broth, then the beef base and tomato sauce.

Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, skimming frequently to remove the oil.

While soup is simmering, mix meatballs by adding all ingredients to the ground beef. Roll meat mix into small meatballs. It should yield about 80 to 90 meatballs.

Place meatballs into hot soup and simmer about 20 minutes, still skimming frequently to remove the fat from the ground beef.

Add acini di pepe to soup and simmer about 10 to 12 minutes.

You might need to add additional beef broth, between 8 and 10 ounces, to compensate for the pasta soaking up the broth in the soup.

Serve immediately. Garnish with grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves 10 to 12 eight-ounce portions.