Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup is a hearty, flavor-packed Italian-American favorite. This easy crowd-pleasing soup has the perfect marriage of flavors that comes from beans, spinach, pasta, spices, Parmesan cheese, and mini Italian meatballs. Pressure cooking lets you bring this soup to the table in a fraction of the time.
Tips and Substitutions
Use your favorite recipe for Italian meatballs or you can go with my recipe. You can substitute chicken or turkey meatballs, or a combination of beef and pork.
If you’re not interested in making your own meatballs, you could use premade Italian sausage and divide it into small pieces that you can drop into the soup.
I don’t recommend using store-bought frozen meatballs because I find them to be too big. If that doesn’t bother you, feel free to use them. You can also make the mini meatballs ahead of time.
Traditional Italian Wedding Soup recipes call for escarole but I substitute baby spinach. Escarole is a slightly bitter leafy green related to the endive. If you want to use escarole, feel free to substitute.
I use 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper in the Italian Wedding Soup and don’t find it to be too spicy. However, based on reader feedback I’ve decreased it to 1 teaspoon in the recipe. So feel free to add more than a teaspoon if you’re not sensitive to spice.
I like to use the tiny little round pasta called acini di pepe (pronounced “ah-chee-nee dee pay-pay”). You can substitute orzo or pastina. To check if you need to adjust the cooking time, use this handy guide for determining pasta cooking time from Pressure Cooking Today.
If you’d like the pasta cooked al dente, you might want to decrease the pressure cooking time by a minute.
At the end of the recipe, you’ll add beaten eggs to the soup to thicken the soup and give it a rich yellow color. If you were to pour the eggs into the soup directly, you’d get scrambled egg in the soup like egg drop soup – not good!
To avoid this outcome, you’ll temper the eggs by gradually warming up the eggs so they don’t curdle when added to the soup. Whisk in small quantities of hot broth to the eggs and then incorporate the warmed eggs and broth mixture to the soup, gradually. If you want to know more, here’s an article about tempering eggs.
If you’re new to the Instant Pot and aren’t familiar with how to use it, please read the Instant Pot DUO Beginner’s Quick Start Guide or the Instant Pot ULTRA Beginner’s Quick Start Guide first and then come back here to learn how to make this Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup.
Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup Recipe Ingredients
How to Make Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup Recipe (Step-by-Step Instructions)
- Instant Pot DUO: Select the ‘Saute’ function.
- Instant Pot ULTRA: Select the ‘Saute’ function and press ‘Start’.
- Once the Instant Pot has pre-heated, add olive oil and allow the oil to heat up.
- Stir in onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and ham and saute for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Deglaze with white wine and stir to remove any brown bits.
- Select ‘Cancel’.
- Stir in red pepper, oregano, black pepper, salt, and bay leaves.
- Stir in broth.
- Add meatballs and pasta and stir gently.
Instant Pot DUO Pressure Cook:
- Close the lid and make sure steam release handle is in ‘Sealing’ position
- Press ‘Manual’ (or ‘Pressure Cook’) and ‘+’ or ‘-‘ until the display reads ‘6′ (6 minutes).
Instant Pot ULTRA Pressure Cook:
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and adjust the time to 6 minutes (00:06).
- Press ‘Start’.
- Instant Pot display will change to ‘On’.
- Once the Instant Pot is pressurized, the float valve will go up.
- The display will count down from 6 to 0; it will then switch to ‘Keep Warm’ mode and display ‘L0:00’ or ’00 00′ and begin to count up.
Instant Pot DUO Quick Release:
- Move the steam release handle to ‘Venting’. I like to place a folded towel over the steam release handle and move it to the venting position. Remove the towel after turning the knob.
- When your Instant Pot is depressurized, the float valve will be in the down position.
- Press ‘Cancel’ and open the Instant Pot.
Instant Pot ULTRA Quick Release:
- Press down on the Steam Release Button until it locks into place, and steam begins to come out of the Steam Release Valve.
- When your Instant Pot is depressurized, the float valve will be in the down position.
- Press ‘Cancel’ and open the Instant Pot.
- Stir in beans and spinach.
- Select ‘Saute’ function (see above)
- Allow the soup to cook for another 2 minutes, or until heated through and greens are wilted.
- Remove the inner pot from the base unit and place on a heat-resistant surface or use a trivet.
- Add 6 tablespoons of the hot broth to the beaten eggs, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Off heat, add the egg mixture to the hot soup in a steady slow drizzle, stirring in a circular fashion constantly. *
- Serve into soup bowls and garnish each serving with freshly grated parmesan cheese and parsley.
* See tips for more information on adding the eggs to the soup.
Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Mini Italian Meatballs
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 2 Tbsp whole milk
- 2 Tbsp parsley chopped
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic minced
- 3/4 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper or to taste
- pinch nutmeg
- 1/2 lb. ground beef or ground pork or a combination of both
Soup
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 cup carrots chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 1 Tbsp garlic minced
- 1 cup ham 1/4 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper or more to taste
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp black pepper freshly ground
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 large or 2 small bay leaves
- 7 cups chicken broth
- 25 mini mini Italian meatballs (recipe included above)
- 1/2 cup acini di pepe pasta
- 2 cups cannellini beans cooked (or 1 15 oz. can
- 2 cups spinach fresh, chopped
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 1/2 cup parsley chopped
Instructions
Mini Italian Meatballs
- Combine all ingredients for the meatballs, except the ground beef.
- Add in the ground beef and combine well. If the mixture is too wet to form meatballs, add more breadcrumbs as needed. If the mixture is too dry, add some chicken broth.
- Form into 3/4-inch mini meatballs and place on a baking sheet until ready to use.
Soup
- Select the ‘Saute’ function and pre-heat the Instant Pot.
- Once the Instant Pot has pre-heated, heat the olive oil.
- Stir in onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and ham and saute for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Deglaze with white wine and stir to remove any brown bits. Press 'Cancel'
- Stir in red pepper, oregano, black pepper, salt, and bay leaves.
- Stir in broth.
- Gently stir in meatballs and pasta.
- Close the lid and pressure cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.
- Do a quick release, initially releasing the pressure in short bursts to avoid food particles from spewing out with the steam.
- Open the Instant Pot and stir in beans and spinach.
- In 'Saute' mode, cook soup for another 2 minutes, or until heated through and spinach has wilted.
- Using silicone mitts, carefully remove the inner pot from the base unit and place on a heat-resistant surface or use a trivet.
- Temper the eggs: Off heat, add 6 tablespoons of the hot broth to the beaten eggs, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add the egg/broth mixture to the soup in a steady slow drizzle, constantly stirring in a circular fashion.
- Serve into soup bowls and garnish each serving with freshly grated parmesan cheese and parsley.
Video
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. minced garlic, cut vegetables, etc.
- See the blog post for more detailed recipe tips.
Nutrition
I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
If you loved this recipe, please give it a 5 Star rating in the comment section below and please share it on social media using the social media share buttons at the top and bottom of this post. Thank you so much!
You might also like to try these Instant Pot Recipes:
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| Instant Pot Cream of Chicken Soup | Instant Pot Chicken Curry Soup | Instant Pot Moroccan Stew |
Barbara Schieving
February 6, 2019 at 11:36 amLooks delicious! You can’t go wrong with a classic.
Janet
February 12, 2019 at 6:22 pmSoup was delish except it was very spicy with the red crushed pepper… will not do next time. I also did t add the ham or egg at the end!
Paint the Kitchen Red
February 12, 2019 at 8:19 pmJanet, I will go ahead and decrease the quantity of crushed red pepper in the recipe because I realize that most people may not like spice as I do. Thanks for your feedback.
D Kelsven
February 21, 2019 at 8:46 amSo so yummy
Barbie
March 2, 2019 at 4:07 pmVery easy to make, but i made it in a big pot on the stove instead. My pressure cooker pot is too small for this recipe. It also turned out a little too spicy for me, even with only 1 tsp of pepper flakes. Every has different preferences for different reasons. I have a sensitive belly. Will only use 1/4 next time as I still like a little kick.
Paint the Kitchen Red
March 2, 2019 at 6:35 pmHi Barbie – thanks for your comment; very kind of you to take the time. I’m glad you liked the recipe!
Barbie
March 9, 2019 at 8:37 pmOh, and thanks for teaching me how to temper eggs!
Jen
March 7, 2019 at 11:55 amLiked this a lot! I doubled the meatballs because I’m feeding four teenagers, but otherwise pretty much followed the recipe exactly. I didn’t temper my eggs right so they didn’t blend like I’d hoped, but I think it was my error – not the recipe. Still tasted delicious. Will definitely make this again.
Paint the Kitchen Red
March 7, 2019 at 6:05 pmI’ve done what you did with the eggs before, so I get it 🙂 Glad to hear you liked the recipe, Jen.