A Great Winter Supper With Zing!

Italian Wedding Soup

This was really yummy and easy. I made a few adjustments (see below), but overall, a warm and delicious soup with kick.

Sausage Meatballs

1 pound mild Italian sausage

1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic salt

Soup

4 cups hot chicken broth (I added one more later)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I only used a couple shakes)
1/2 cup mini pasta shells or any mini pasta (Seemed like too little so I doubled this to 1 cup, or you could make extra separately and add them to your liking. I used ditalini or mini tubes.)
bag (10 ounces) baby spinach leaves
Grated Parmesan cheese
salt to taste

Directions

1. Combine all meatball ingredients. Form into marble-size balls.

2. Combine broth, tomato paste, garlic and red pepper flakes in 4 1/2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker. Add meatballs. Cover; cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours. (I didn't have time to cook this on low so I cooked it on high for 2 hrs and it worked great. At this point, I added in another cup of hot chicken broth because there didn't seem to be that much; I also think this helped mellow the flavors a bit.)

3. Thirty minutes before serving, add pasta. (After the 2 hrs, I turned it down to low and added the pasta for another 25 minutes. I think you could even try it for 20 minutes as the pasta was very soft.) When pasta is tender, stir in spinach leaves. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately. Enjoy!