Italian Wedding Soup a la Awesome!

This glorious Italian Wedding type soup was incredibly flavorful and I’m definitely going to make it over and over again. I say it’s an Italian Wedding TYPE soup because I used turkey for the meatballs and bulgur wheat (that grain in tabouli) instead of pasta. I also made my own chicken stock, which has become my new favorite past time since I got my pressure cooker!

Mmmmm, look at that. I wish I had more now.

Ooooooo fresh veggies and seasonings! I used Herb de Provence which is a mixture of savory, fennel, basil, thyme, and lavender flowers, poultry seasoning which is a mixture of thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper, and nutmeg, and I used some more thyme because who doesn’t love thyme?! These herbs went all over the veggies and chicken I roasted for the stock…

Carrots, celery, shallots, onions, garlic, and a whole lemon cut up were the base for the chicken to roast on.

Le sigh, look at my pretty knife! Shun’s are excellent, I recommend them.

I roasted three attached leg + thigh pieces for the stock until golden brown and the inside reaches 165 degrees.

The chicken turned out so juicy and scrumptious that I almost didn’t make stock out of them. I finally made the stock but I definitely picked at the chicken a bit before.

I put all of the roasted veggies with the chicken (minus my snack potion) with some extra raw onions, couple cloves of garlic, a celery stock, 10-12 black peppercorns and a couple of whole all spice berries into the pressure cooker and cooked on the high pressure setting for about a hour. Then after straining the stock and seasoning with salt and pepper I had a SUPER DELICIOUS chicken stock. Mmmmm!

Then I made tiny turkey meatballs with a bit of the chicken fat from the soup, parsley, garlic, shallots, bread crumbs and salt & pepper.

I baked these until golden brown instead of pan frying them because there were sooooo many that would have taken fooooorreeevvveer.

Italian Wedding Soup (Kinda). Then into the stock went the bulgar wheat which I cooked until tender. I then added diced carrots, diced zucchini, diced onions, chopped fresh spinach, fresh parsley, and last but not least the tiny turkey meatballs at the end after all the veggies are cooked.

Figgy, Acorn Squashy, Cheesy, Shalloty Pizza

Alison and I decided to make pizza. She made the dough since, as a side job, she worked as a cook at a pizza shop for a couple of years. She can even spin the dough in the air!

Then I made all toppins. This creation turned out amaaaazing! No joke. The sauce was a homemade fig chutney, and I topped it with goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, caramelized shallots, roasted acorn squash, fresh chopped garlic, and thyme.

Glamor shot of the Fig, Acorn Squash & Goat Cheese Pizza!

We used white whole wheat flour, which was a new thing for us. The fig chutney was just chopped figs rehydrated with garlic, salt, and ginger (I think, look up a recipe if you’re a stickler for detail)

Now spread it out!

Goat cheese and fresh mozzarella. Nom!

Now lay it out! With some fresh thyme and minced garlic.

Roasted halved acorn squash, scooped it out, dice it and mix it with butter. Caramelize the shallots with some salt and butter. Get some good butter and use it sparingly with canola oil and you won’t need to use too much for lotsa flavor.

Now put them toppins on!

Bake at 400-500 degrees depending on how you want the crust to turn out. I use a cast iron pizza pan which makes me feel both fancy and rustic.

Make sure not to burn the crust. It will keep cooking and crisping after you take it out of the oven.

Fin! Fig Chutney, Acorn Squash, Caramelized Shallots & Goat Cheese Pizza.