Recipe #256: Italian Wedding Soup

I spent a long time looking for just the right recipe for this, but I couldn't find just one that I was happy with between the ingredients, ratings, comments, and so on.... so I came closest to one I liked on food.com and then edited it a bunch!  This turned out better than any of the ones I've tried in a restaurant, I think.  It was fun to make and there were plenty of leftovers that I'm going to enjoy and share with friends.

Ingredients:

Meatballs

1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley or flat leaf parsley
1 egg
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
8 ounces lean ground beef
8 ounces ground pork

Soup

10 cups chicken broth
1 lb escarole or endive, coarsely chopped
2 eggs
2/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper
1/2 c orzo, cooked

Directions:

In a large bowl stir together first 6 ingredients. Stir in cheese and bread crumbs. Mix in meats with your hands. Roll into 1 inch meatballs (about 75).  Place on a greased or lined baking sheet.  Bake in the oven for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.  This will help prevent the soup from being greasy.   (Technique note:  I was lucky enough to come across a little trick to making these little meatballs much easier to form.  Working in batches, roll the meat out into a tube shape about 1" thick, then cut apart into 1" pieces.  It's then easy to quickly form them into a ball shape while placing them on the sheet.)

Bring broth to a boil in a large pot over medium high heat.  Add meatballs and escarole and simmer about 10 minutes.  Add the cooked orzo.  Whisk eggs and cheese in a bowl; then add to soup slowly stirring with a fork to form thin strands of egg about 1 minute.  (Mine ended up more like "crumbs")  Season with salt and pepper.