This recipe is a staple during the cooler months — warm and delicious, savory, healthy and filling. It’s quite versatile in what vegetables you can add, and best of all, you don’t need dairy to make the meatballs or the soup. See my dairy-free meatball recipe here.

If you love warm soup recipes that don’t take forever but taste like they’ve been cooking for hours, this is the recipe for you. And I’ll let you in on the best secret to this recipe. Cooking the meatballs in the soup as opposed to beforehand makes all the difference.

Italian Meatball Soup

If you love warm, hearty soups that don't take forever but taste like they've been cooking for hours, this is the recipe for you

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

  

• 7 to 8 cups of water or low sodium beef stock.
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1 small potato peeled and diced.
• 1 cup small sized pasta like penne, rotini, fusilli, or farfalle. (See notes or more information)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1/4 cup parsley

For the Meatballs

• 1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
• 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/2 tsp ground oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

 

• To make the meatballs, add the ground beef or turkey, and mix with one egg in a flat, wide bowl.
• Add breadcrumbs and spices and mix well. Add more breadcrumbs if necessary until you are able to form the mixture into 1-inch meatballs.
• In a cast iron pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Brown the meatballs in batches, turning to brown all sides. Cook each side for 3 minutes each. No need to cook them all the way as they’ll go back into the soup later.
• Remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside
• For the soup: In a large stock pot, heat 7 to 8 cups of beef stock or water to a boil. Add some salt and pepper.
• If you are only using water then add in 1 teaspoon of beef bouillon powder, or Better than Boullion beef – my preference – per cup of water. Stir until it’s dissolved.
• Stir in 2 tablespoons of tomato paste–it adds so much yummy richness.
• Add the peppercorns, bay leaves and remaining 1/4 cup parsley to the broth and allow to simmer.
• Add in diced potatoes, carrots, celery and onions. Finally, in go the browned meatballs.
• Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes and then add your uncooked pasta into the soup.
• Continue to allow the soup to simmer for at least 10 to 15 more minutes, long enough for the vegetables to get slightly tender and the meatballs to cook all the way through
• Remove bay leaves
• Serve hot and enjoy!

Notes

Find out more about types of small pastas here. I would not use egg noodles, or any kind of long pasta, or macaroni pasta.

Secrets to making this soup amazing: As mentioned, cooking the meatballs in the soup makes a huge difference. Another secret is using tomato paste because most other recipes do not call for tomato paste. Personally, I also think Better than Boullion makes this soup next level delicious but that’s up to you. Regular beef stock will work just fine.

Ground Turkey: Unlike ground beef, ground turkey cannot be undercooked and still be eaten. Where you can undercook ground beef a little bit (think medium rare) do not undercook ground turkey meatballs. I always use an instant read thermometer when cooking any meat to ensure its reached a healthy temperature.

Make it your own: add or omit veggies based on your preference. I have family members that don’t like eating potatoes. I don’t like celery; I may omit that sometimes. It does add a distinct flavor but that’s up to you.

Omitting potatoes will shorten your cooking time as potatoes typically take 20 minutes to boil.

 

Keyword dinner, italian, meatballs, soup