Sunday Slow Suppers: Osso Buco Soup

Sheri, of As the Seasons Change provided us with this week’s recipe – a cross between a soup and a stew from chirpy Rachel Ray (you can find the original recipe here). She calls it a “stoup” but I just can’t bring myself to do that, so I’m sticking with soup (besides most of us added extra broth and the liquid wasn’t thick like a stew so I’m going with soup).
My guess, she got the Osso Buco part of it because she uses ground veal (as opposed to the traditional veal shank of Osso Buco) but I used ground turkey (for health – and next time may try ground turkey breast instead) and the finishing gremolata. Either way, love her or hate her, you can bet that this soup is good!

Next time, I may do what Amy did (I think it was Amy) and add some shredded cabbage – of course, that would have to be on a night when the girls weren’t around to eat it, and of course, that would make it less Osso Buco-y but what the heck.

I still need to figure out the Weight Watcher points in this one.

Hope you all enjoy.

Osso Bucco Soup

Osso Bucco Soup
Meatballs

• 1 pound ground turkey
• large egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs, a couple of handfuls
• 1/4 cup, a generous handful, grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (original recipe said fresh-grate – sorry I don’t do this)
• Coarse salt and black pepper

Soup

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, (I’m going to try this with 1T next time)
• 2 carrots, peeled & chopped (I used a whole bunch of baby carrots that I chopped)
• 2 ribs celery and their greens, chopped
• 1 medium yellow skinned onion, peeled and chopped
• Coarse salt and pepper
• 1 fresh or dried bay leaf
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 (14-ounce) can white beans, cannellini, drained
• 1 (15- ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 3 cups chicken stock (I used the fat free broth)
• 2 cups beef stock (again fat free broth for me)
• 1 cup egg pasta, broken egg fettuccini or medium egg noodles (or no yolk are just as good)

Gremolata

• 2 cloves garlic, cracked away from skins
• 1 (2-ounce) tin flat fillet anchovies, drained
• Handful flat-leaf parsley, about 1/4 cup loosely packed
• 1 lemon, zested (funny here, my lemon had gone bad so I used a lime)Combine the meatball mix in a large bowl.

Heat a medium soup pot over medium to medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil to hot pot and carrots give stir and add the celery and onion. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and a bay leaf. Stir vegetables and cook 5 minutes to begin to soften. Do not let vegetables brown, reduce heat if necessary. Add the wine and cook for 1 minute. Next, add beans and tomatoes and stock to the pot. Put a lid on the pot and raise heat to high. When soup boils, about 3 minutes, add 1-inch balls of meatball mix directly to the pot. When you are done adding the meatballs, stir in the noodles. Simmer for 6 minutes to cook noodles and meatballs. Adjust seasonings and turn the heat off, then let soup stand a couple of minutes.

Pile garlic, anchovies, parsley and lemon zest on a cutting board and finely chop the mixture, then transfer to a small dish.

Serve soup in shallow bowls with a couple of teaspoonfuls of gremolata on top. Stir the gremolata throughout the soup.

I served this with some homemade French bread, which was great for wiping the bowls clean, much to Fala’s chagrin.