Minestra Maritata Or Italian Wedding Soup Recipe

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During the autumn and winter months I usually get several emails requesting the recipe for an Italian wedding soup. Tuscans don't serve a specific soup at weddings, so I was curious as to the origin of the soup. Until I found a discussion of minestra maritata in Jeannne Carola Francesconi's La Cucina Napoletana and realized the dish has nothing to do with the happy day -- wedding soup is a mis-translation. To say two things go well together in Italian, one can say si sposono bene (they're well married) -- or, more to the south, that they're maritati, i.e. married. The combination of greens and meat in a clear broth certainly does work well and deserves to be called maritata -- no wedding involved. According to Ms. Francesconi, the dish is extremely old, falling into a group of meat-and-vegetable soups that are common throughout Europe, and may have a Roman origin. In any case, it was the standard Neapolitan fare before the introduction of pasta, so much so that people from other regions used to call Neapolitans "leaf-eaters"(mangiafoglie). Alas, minestra maritata's popularity is now waning among Neapolitans: Since it was designed to be a fulfilling single-course meal (and would likely have been the only meal of the day for many people a century ago) it is rib-sticking. Too rib-sticking for modern diners, who generally follow their soup with a second course, and are also much more conscious of fats than their ancestors were. As is the case with all traditional recipes, there are an infinite number of variations to minestra maritata. The important thing is that it contains meat and greens; within these restrictions feel free to vary the recipe to suit your tastes and what's available in your local market. A note on the meats: Ms. Francesconi says that those used traditionally are now difficult to find even in Naples, so I have substituted to our modern times.