Salut to My Soup

[plumtreeblossom]

They had Italian Wedding Soup across the street. Yum, now it's here at my desk and will get in my belly. Since discovering it a few years ago, Italian Wedding has shot right up my soup list, and has pretty much supplanted Tomato Bisque as my #1 favorite soup.

Looking up recipes and history reveals that it's not really associated with Italian weddings. That would stand to reason. In its American urban legend incarnation, the dainty white pastini represents the bride. The meatballs, of course, represent the groom. But the fact that the meatballs are the size of marbles says something that the Italians just...wouldn't.

*slurp!*

Comments

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

dpolicar has in past had at least one Stone Soup party, where guests are invited to bring something to put into soup. At the last one, I was very amused that the combined ingredients made two soups: a heart beef soup with tomato and pasta and a very authentic Italian wedding soup. Since I love both of those, I was extremely pleased. I should nudge him to do that again.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yes definitely! I bet some really creative ingredients will turn up!

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure it wasn't a soup to be made for weddings. I really doubt the "pastini is this" and "meatballs are that" part though... if you have grown in an Italian family, you know that some foods are prized *because* they take an inordinate amount of labor and time to make, and cheating in any way shape or form is considered a bad thing. That said, it wouldn't surprise me *at all* to discover that in a culture where the behaviors is just like the Jews (you invite a huge crowd for the wedding) and now you have a ton of people with nothing to do that could start a fight for nothing, you give them stuff to do -- make tiny pasta and meatballs -- and you tell them it's bad luck not to have that soup for the wedding.

Then times change, people start buying that stuff, others don't even have the soup for their weddings, people are so hurried and arrive at the last moment anyway. A few generations later, no one knows about it. I grew up in Brazil and *no one I knew* has ever heard of that soup. But the instant I saw it here, I went, "sure, that would make an awful lot of sense". Then again, maybe someone here invented it so they could have something to sell, who knows.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Interesting possibilities you bring up there. It occurred to me that it could be also be an Italian-American thing. It certainly would be a nice soup for a wedding dinner. It's light, yet has some substance. You couldn't let the guests serve themselves out of a big pot though, or the first people in line will hog all the meatballs. :-)

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Your posts almost always make me giggle. Just thought I would share that in lieu of anything intelligent to add...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Have a meatball! :-)

[mindflankr.livejournal.com]

I had the Food Network on while I was unpacking over the weekend and saw a show on how to make Italian Wedding Soup. According to the chef, it is called 'wedding soup' because of the marriage of the flavors....however, I like your story better! hehehe