Italian Wedding Soup Pasta

Have you ever thought that much about what really draws you to a recipe? Often times it might be that it looks easy or you have the ingredients on hand and can avoid yet another trip to the grocery. This particular dish caught my eye for two reasons. The first being that it said Italian Wedding Soup and I love that soup-probably because of those miniature meatballs. The other thing that caught my eye was that it called for ditalini and I just happened to have that in my pantry.  Ditalini is a very small tubular pasta and I had seen it months ago and thought it looked so cute that I bought a box of it. When I saw this recipe which included ditalini and small meatballs....well, it was pretty much a done deal.

This was really tasty. I made a few tweaks to the recipe, but pretty much followed it as written.

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan		1 small yellow onion, minced
2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs		2 celery stalks, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt		2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds or half-moons
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper		3 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder		1/2 teaspoon salt (kosher)
1 large egg		3 cups roughly chopped romaine or spinach
1/2 pound ground beef		1/2 pound ditalini
2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon dried red pepper 1.  Make the meatballs. In medium bowl, mix together beef, salt, pepper, garlic powder, breadcrumbs and egg. Make 24 meatballs. 3.  Sauté carrots, onion, celery, and red pepper for five minutes. Add chicken broth, bring to simmer 5.  Add the meatballs back in and cook for a few more minutes, add the romaine and let that wilt.		grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, for garnish 2.  Brown the meatballs in olive oil in a large lidded skillet several minutes on each side and then transfer to plate 4.  Add ditalini and simmer for ten minutes, stirring now and then. 6.  Serve with Parmesan