If you’re hoping to get a taste of Italian Wedding Soup at your next Italian wedding reception, don’t get your hopes up, nor should a new bride expect to inherit the recipe from her mother on the day of her wedding as long been rumored. Instead, the name comes from a mistranslation of a traditional southern Italian soup known as Minestra Maritata, a winter holiday dish.
The English translation does a disservice to the poetry of the original Italian. The phrase minestra maritata refers to the marriage of meat and vegetables, a matrimony of flavor rather than a celebration of nuptials between a husband and wife. The signature flavors of the soup are bitter vegetables wedded to meat, often, but not always pork. Originating in southern Italy, minestra maritata is a classic example of cucina povera, the poor kitchen. The main ingredients vary by region but typically include undesirable or tough, hard-to-cook vegetables and scraps from butchering meat making it a true peasant dish.
The soup dates back to the 15th or 16th century, a time before the Columbian Exchange when New World vegetables such as the tomato were first introduced to Europe. The vegetables are traditionally more bitter than sweet, and the weed-like plants grow close to year-round in the southern end of the peninsula. For this reason, minestra maritata is mostly considered a winter meal.
Commonly the soup is served as part of Christmas and Easter celebrations, and according to food writer Katie Parla, author of Food of The Italian South, in the Campania region, the soup is prepared during the annual slaughtering of the pigs, also a winter tradition. There, pig bones are boiled to make broth, scraps of pork are added, and bitter greens like dandelion leaves, cardoons, and escarole are betrothed to the meat. The rich pork stock pairs well with the bitter leaves.
Elsewhere, in places like Calabria and Puglia, chicory, fennel, and celery are common. The food historian Anna Del Conte notes in The Concise Gastronomy of Italy that in these regions, the soup is often topped with pecorino cheese and breadcrumbs and then baked. The resulting soup is more like a pie. In Naples, the soup is served at the celebration of Santo Stefano just after Christmas. This version is heavy on meat including beef and should include at least seven different greens, one for each of the Catholic sacraments. According to food writer John Mariani in his Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, another Neapolitan variation goes by the name pignato grasso, meaning pinched fat, perhaps referencing the tiny meatballs that sometimes accompany the soup.
Italian American Wedding Soup is equally varied. The most common iteration in America features bitter greens like escarole, small meatballs, and pea-sized pasta, but even this isn’t always the case. Sometimes Wedding Soup is simply called minestrone, or where beans are included, it might even be referred to as pasta e fagioli. The names are mixed and matched from an array of recipes depending on local or family customs. Adding to the confusion, the Progresso brand offers two versions in their line of prepared soups: Italian Wedding Soup and Chickarina. The Chickarina forgoes spinach and includes chunks of chicken in addition to the small meatballs.
The tiny meatballs frequently associated with Wedding Soup are more customary in the United States. The meat in most Italian versions of wedding soup includes chunks of sausage, pork ribs, pork skin, salami, or in some regions, intestine. And of course, many Italian recipes do include meatballs ranging in size from as small as a grape to as large as golf balls. The intent of the recipe is to use the available food and prevent waste.
Adding pasta to the soup is more common in the United States as well. The Ronzoni macaroni company helped popularize a version using orzo, but acini di pepe, the “seeds of peppercorn” shaped macaroni, is a standard choice. Some versions of the soup include dumplings known as cazzetti d’angelo which translate to the masculine parts of an angel. For the truly desperate, spaghetti chopped up into tiny pieces can also serve as a substitute.
While Italian immigrants brought various minestra maritata recipes with them to Little Italys all over the country, the area of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio has an abnormally strong affinity for it. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the region is the leading consumer market for canned Wedding Soup from the Progresso company. Meanwhile, just across the state line, the Mt. Carmel Society in Lowellville, Ohio hosted wedding soup cooking competitions in 2018 and 2019. The popularity of the soup has meant even non-Italian restaurants in the region often have added wedding soup to the menu.
One thing should be made clear, however. Although Wedding Soup’s historical connections might be divorced from actual matrimony, there’s no rule against serving it at a big Italian wedding.
The term wedding soup comes from a mistranslation of the Italian language phrase minestra maritata (‘married soup’). Minestra maritata more directly translates to ‘wedded broths’. The marriage of its meats and veggies inside of its broth is the only matrimony relevant in this context.
It’s still debatable when minestra maritata is best eaten, as some consider it to be winter-y, while others don’t mind eating it during Easter time as well. Its name is tied to the ritual of pig slaughtering. It’s a common ritual for many countries to butcher pigs in winter and because nothing is thrown away, scraps of prosciutto would be boiled alongside pork bones and the broth would eventually get its flavor by adding green. In parts like Bagnoli Irpino (Campania), it’s typical to also add in the mix salami made of pork intestines and stomach.
Because its charm couldn’t go unnoticed, the Italian wedding soup history also has ties with America, where it was brought by Neapolitans. As expected, the Americanized version is lighter, since because some people couldn’t afford food back in the day in Italy, they would cook this wedding soup as a means to stay full throughout the day. Not to mention that eventually pasta became commercialized and affordable and is now frequently added in the mix of this soup.
A variation of this salami is the salame pezzente, found in regions like Lucania or Puglia, and in other parts of Campania. Salame pezzente is traditionally prepared with offal (liver, speen, lungs) and flavored with spices. It literally translates to beggar salami and historically, it was the last sausage made from pork and it was extremely high in fat and not meant to be consumed directly. Thus, it was added as a side dish to main courses like ragù, soups, and of course the minestra maritata.
Its original name in Italian is minestra maritata and it was translated to “wedding soup”, when in fact, a more appropriate translation would be “married soup”—as in green vegetables (minestra) blend very well (maritata) with meat. The marriage isn’t a marriage between two people, but between vegetables and meat.
But don’t be disappointed! Even if this soup won’t guarantee that you will live happily ever after with your significant other, there are still plenty of things to love about it. This soup is a “peasant” dish, as it was mostly made with leftover meat (usually pork—either sausages or meatballs) in a broth, alongside whatever green or slightly bitter vegetables were around, like chicory, cabbage, escarole, chard, spinach, endive, lettuce.
One thing should be made clear, however. Although Wedding Soup’s historical connections might be divorced from actual matrimony, there’s no rule against serving it at a big Italian wedding.
Adding pasta to the soup is more common in the United States as well. The Ronzoni macaroni company helped popularize a version using orzo, but acini di pepe, the “seeds of peppercorn” shaped macaroni, is a standard choice. Some versions of the soup include dumplings known as cazzetti d’angelo which translate to the masculine parts of an angel. For the truly desperate, spaghetti chopped up into tiny pieces can also serve as a substitute.
Elsewhere, in places like Calabria and Puglia, chicory, fennel, and celery are common. The food historian Anna Del Conte notes in The Concise Gastronomy of Italy that in these regions, the soup is often topped with pecorino cheese and breadcrumbs and then baked. The resulting soup is more like a pie. In Naples, the soup is served at the celebration of Santo Stefano just after Christmas. This version is heavy on meat including beef and should include at least seven different greens, one for each of the Catholic sacraments. According to food writer John Mariani in his Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, another Neapolitan variation goes by the name pignato grasso, meaning pinched fat, perhaps referencing the tiny meatballs that sometimes accompany the soup.
The tiny meatballs frequently associated with Wedding Soup are more customary in the United States. The meat in most Italian versions of wedding soup includes chunks of sausage, pork ribs, pork skin, salami, or in some regions, intestine. And of course, many Italian recipes do include meatballs ranging in size from as small as a grape to as large as golf balls. The intent of the recipe is to use the available food and prevent waste.
While Italian immigrants brought various minestra maritata recipes with them to Little Italys all over the country, the area of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio has an abnormally strong affinity for it. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the region is the leading consumer market for canned Wedding Soup from the Progresso company. Meanwhile, just across the state line, the Mt. Carmel Society in Lowellville, Ohio hosted wedding soup cooking competitions in 2018 and 2019. The popularity of the soup has meant even non-Italian restaurants in the region often have added wedding soup to the menu.
Giada De Laurentiis Makes Italian Wedding Soup | Everyday Italian | Food Network
FAQ
What is the meaning of wedding soup?
Do Italians eat Italian wedding soup at weddings?
What is the real name of Italian wedding soup?
What soup is served at weddings?
Why is it called Wedding soup?
In fact, the term “wedding soup” is a mistranslation of the Italian language, minestra maritata (or “married soup”). The dish was so named because it marries together green vegetables and meat. (Really, it was probably just a way for Italian mothers, like my own, to get their children to eat their vegetables.)
What is Italian wedding soup?
Wedding soup or Italian wedding soup is an Italian soup consisting mainly of green vegetables and meat in chicken broth. It is popular in the United States, where it is a staple in many Italian restaurants and diners. The term wedding soup comes from a mistranslation of the Italian language phrase minestra maritata (‘married soup’).
What is wedding soup made of?
Wedding soup consists of green vegetables (usually endive and escarole or cabbage, lettuce, kale, and/or spinach) and meat (usually meatballs and/or sausage, the latter sometimes made of chicken and containing Italian parsley and Parmesan cheese) in a clear chicken-based broth.
How did Italian wedding soup get its name?
Claim: Italian wedding soup gained its name from being traditionally served at weddings. nuptial couple the extra strength and vigor to see them through the wedding night. However, that origin is naught but invention; Italian wedding soup gained its name not from the occasion that might bring it to the table but rather from the harmony of its