Why It Works
- A pressure cooker greatly speeds up the cooking of tough cuts like beef chuck while developing a rich broth.
- Cooking the greens down in a flavorful mixture of olive oil, pancetta, garlic, and fresh chile pepper infuses them deeply with flavor.
Meet the real Italian wedding soup, or minestra maritata, as it’s called in Naples, where it’s from. This soup has very little in common with its Italian-American descendant, save that they both “wed” brothy meats with greens—that’s right, these soups have nothing to do with actual weddings.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
I decided to develop this recipe while working on a simpler meatball-studded Americanized version of wedding soup, both because I wanted readers to learn more about where today’s popular wedding soup comes from and also because I think this is the more beautiful soup. It’s a soulful mixture of a wide variety of meats, both fresh and cured—beef, pork, chicken, various salumi, prosciutto—that are cooked until fall-off-the-bone tender in a broth with a meaty depth unlike almost any other. The greens, meanwhile, are also cooked down until completely yielding; there’s no crisp-tender, trace-of-freshness here. No, this is yet another example from Italian cooking of just how delicious overcooked vegetables can be.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Recipes for this soup vary, of course, but one of the bigger differences I’ve noticed is how the greens are treated. In some homes, they’re chucked into a pot of water or the broth and simmered until tender. That’s good, but it’s not as good as the other method I’ve seen, in which the greens are sautéed and then braised in a fatty slick of olive oil and rendered lard from pancetta or lardo, ample garlic, and a fresh hot red chile pepper. It’s quite a sight and treat for the nose as it cooks.
The greens themselves are just as much a mix as the meats, and you should try to get your hands on as many bitter, hardy leafy vegetables as you can: escarole, dandelion, chicory, Napa cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, broccoli rabe, you name it.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
The marriage happens in the bowl, when the brothy meats are ladled onto a rich, glistening pile of greens, all melted and spoon-soft. In the bowl, too, are garlicky toasts, and on top, a generous shower of funky grated pecorino. Take a bite, and know in your marrow that no matter who cooked it, mamma loves you always.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Think You Know Italian Wedding Soup? Here’s the Version Italians Actually Serve
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For the Meats and Broth:
1 pound (454 g) boneless beef chuck
3/4 pound (340 g) pork ribs
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3/4 pound; 340 g total)
8 ounces (225 g) prosciutto trimmings/ends (see notes)
6 ounces (170 g) spicy salami or sopressata (whole, not sliced)
6 ounces (170 g) mild salami or other dry-cured pork sausage (whole, not sliced)
2 medium red onions (8 ounces; 225 g each), halved
1 medium carrot (3 ounces; 85 g)
1 large celery rib (3 ounces; 85 g)
3 large sprigs flat-leaf parsley
2 links fresh Italian sausage (8 ounces; 225 g total)
For the Greens:
2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 pound (113 g) lardo or pancetta, diced
5 medium cloves garlic, sliced
1 fresh hot red pepper, such as a Fresno, stemmed and thinly sliced
2 pounds (900 g) mixed bitter greens, such as escarole, dandelion, broccoli rabe, Swiss chard, Tuscan kale, small Napa cabbage, and/or chicory, trimmed and washed very well of sand and grit
Kosher salt
Garlic-rubbed toasted country bread slices, for serving (see notes)
Grated Pecorino Romano, for serving
For the Meats and Broth: In a pressure cooker, combine beef chuck, pork ribs, chicken thighs, prosciutto trimmings, spicy salami, mild salami, red onions, carrot, celery, and parsley. Cover with cold water (make sure water does not go above the max-fill line in the pressure cooker). Set to high pressure and cook at pressure for 25 minutes. Allow to depressurize naturally.
Alternatively, the meats and vegetables can be simmered in a large soup pot or Dutch oven until meats are tender, about 3 hours.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
When cooker has depressurized, open lid, add fresh sausage, and poach until cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Transfer meats to a work surface and allow to cool slightly. Discard onions, carrot, celery, and parsley. Shred and/or cut up the meats into serving-size pieces, discarding bones as you go. Skim pooled fat from surface of broth, then return meats to the broth. Season broth with salt only if it needs it.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
For the Greens: In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium heat with the lardo or pancetta, garlic, and chile pepper. Cook, stirring, until pork fat has largely rendered and pork is lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Working in batches to avoid crowding the pan, add greens, stirring and allowing to wilt down between additions (covering the pan can help trap steam and wilt the greens faster), until all the greens have been added and cooked down until very tender and a drab green color, about 25 minutes.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Once greens are very cooked and much of their water has evaporated, allow greens to gently fry in the rendered fat for a few minutes, wetting with small additions of the meat broth liquid to prevent excessive browning and drying. Season greens with salt only if they need it.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
When ready to serve, arrange toasts in serving bowls. Top with a generous portion of the cooked greens, then ladle broth and chunks of meat on top. Sprinkle with Pecorino Romano and serve.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Special Equipment
Pressure cooker (such as an Instant Pot) or large Dutch oven or soup pot.
Notes
You can often buy prosciutto ends and trimmings from a deli counter or specialty store that sells sliced-to-order prosciutto.
To make the toasts, drizzle slices of rustic country bread with olive oil, then toast until nicely browned. Rub each slice with a cut clove of raw garlic to infuse the garlic flavor into it.
