Minestra Maritata

Homemade Italian Wedding Soup!

The Italian Wedding Soup or Italian Married Soup (Minestra Maritata – ‘A Menesta’ Mmaretata in Neapolitan) which actually means “married soup”, not wedding soup, and refers to the ‘marriage’ of meats and green leafy vegetables that comprise its main ingredients. 

 Is one of the oldest recipes of Naples some say the recipe goes all the way back to ancient Roman times and was made from various leftover scraps of cured and fresh meats (traditionally pork) and a mixture of leafy greens that could be bought in the market or scavenged from the countryside. 

The Neapolitan married soup is a traditional single dish, a meat and vegetable soup that is generally prepared during the Christmas and Easter holidays and more generally in winter. A soup that derives from the "marriage" between a wide variety of vegetables such as escarole, cabbage, chicory and meat. Obviously, every family has its own recipe: for example, my aunt who prepares it every year during the holidays adds pork feet and meatballs. Mine is a version so to speak "simpler" but definitely tasty!

Ingredients

500 g Swiss chard

500 g Savoy cabbage

500 g Chicory

500 g Escarole

500 g Black cabbage

500 g Beef muscle

500 g small or young chick 

4 Spicy sausages

4 Pork ribs

200 g Pork rind

2 Onions

2 Celery sticks

2 Carrots

Pecorino cheese

extra virgin olive oil to taste

Salt

Black peppercorns

Preparation

To prepare the Neapolitan married soup first by filling a pot of cold water in which you will put the beef muscle, sausages, ribs and pork rinds. Add the celery, onions, carrots roughly cut into pieces, a few grains of pepper and a ladle of oil. Salt slightly, bring to a boil and simmer, foaming often with the help of a slotted spoon. Cook over low heat for about 3 hours. Drain the various types of meat and cut them into pieces and strain the broth. Let the meat broth simmer for a few minutes. Turn off, let cool and remove the grease on the surface. Meanwhile, wash and peel all the vegetables thoroughly and blanch them separately. Add the vegetables to the broth brought to a boil and finish cooking for about 30 minutes. Add the meat and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve the Neapolitan married soup still hot, completing with pecorino cheese flakes.

Notes

 Feel free to personalize the soup by mix and matching meats that you like, add more or less of this or that. In today’s market, for example, they were out of chicory, so I made due with a combination of the other green veggies. If you can’t find broccoli rabe, feel free to use regular broccoli. And you can try out others that strike your fancy; I’ve read that collard greens are very nice in this soup, for example. As for the meats, other types of cured pork can substitute, although I would stay away from smoked meats, which would give the soup an uncharacteristic taste. In fact, some versions of the dish call for other meats, like chicken and beef, even if, to my mind, pork is what gives this dish its unique character.

Minestra maritata is a soup, but this original Italian Wedding Soup so hearty it’s really a one-course meal or ''piatto unico''. I’d follow it with a piece of fruit, nothing more.