This is happiness.

I love me some Italian Wedding Soup. Like, to pieces. Not only does it make me happy, it's also awesome for preggo sickies like me who can't take Nyquil and therefore are stuck with a cold for a week and a half and need to live off of soup and OJ. This makes about 6-8 servings, which has lasted me about a week.

I know I've posted this before, but I changed up the recipe enough to warrant a Round 2. This time I based it off of a Giada recipe and went with ground pork (which actually has less calories than the turkey) and went with mustard greens instead of spinach. Totally enriches the flavor...Hubby says we're adding it to the menu (of our imaginary restaurant).

Italian Wedding Soup
Half a small onion, grated
Handful of chopped basil
1 egg
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 package ground pork (97-3% or so)
Large pinch ground black pepper

14 cups chicken broth
About 8 oz mustard greens, chopped and rinsed well under hot water (or use spinach, curly endive, or escarole)
1/2 cup orzo pasta (or other small shape)
1 egg
2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish

In large bowl, combine onion though pork, and sprinkle with pepper. Use your (clean) hands to combine well. Pull off a small chunk and roll into a ball with your hands. Aim for about an inch or so across. Place on a cookie sheet and continue with remainder of pork mix. You should end up with roughly 12-14 meatballs, but more or less is fine.

Bring broth to a boil in a large stock pot. In the meantime, heat a large saute pan over medium high, coat with cooking spray, and place a half dozen (or however will fit comfortably without touching) in pan. Let that side brown about 2 minutes, then turn over and brown another side about 2 minutes. Remove back to cookie sheet and brown remaining balls.

When broth is boiling, add the meatballs one at a time. Reduce to a simmer, and cook about 4 minutes. Add greens and orzo, stirring very gently, then cook another 8 minutes. Combine an egg and 2 tsp parmesan in a small bowl, and whisk with a fork. While soup is still simmering, stir gently while adding egg mixture very slowly. The egg should cook immediately, making strands throughout the soup (just like egg drop soup).

Serve hot with fresh parmesan and fresh pepper on top to taste.