Food: Italian Wedding Soup

So it's the weekend after Thanksgiving and you find yourself with the carcass of a 22lb turkey... what do you do? If you're me, you make Italian wedding soup. It's traditionally made with chicken broth but I doubt anyone would know the difference. Here's a basic outline of how I make mine. Note that you'll need to save the carcass and some of the drippings from the actual day of cooking the bird. You could replace these two things with uncooked chicken parts if you're making it from scratch. Also note that I don't really measure anything so these are best estimates.

In a large stock pot, combine:

• turkey carcass (some meat attached but fat and skin removed)
  
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• water to cover

Boil the crap out of that for three hours, replacing water as necessary. After three hours, pull the turkey bones and allow to cool on a plate. Use a wire mesh sieve to skim the nasty floating bits in the pot.

Return to a boil after adding:

• turkey meat pulled from bones
• 1 package frozen spinach, drained
• 1/2 cup turkey drippings or gravy
• water to cover

Brown meatballs via pan fry after combining:

• 1 lb ground meat, raw (I use turkey)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
  
• 1/4 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup Romano cheese, grated fine
• garlic powder, dried basil, salt and pepper to taste (1 teapsoon each?)
  

Drain the meatballs and add them to the soup after lowering it to a simmer. Note that I do not cook the meatballs all the way through but rather let them finish in the soup. Cook a box of acini di pepe (or similar small pasta) to al dente and set aside. Some people add the pasta to the soup but I keep it separate so people can chose the amount they want. It also makes for a better product when freezing the leftovers because you can cook pasta to order. I don't like freezing pasta in the soup.

Combine the pasta and soup in a bowl, add a few grates of Pecorino on top and enjoy.

Bonus tip: Pour the leftover drippings you didn't use for this recipe into ice cube trays and put the trays in the freezer. Once frozen, break them out into a freezer bag and save until you need a shot of turkey/richness in other recipes.