Ingredients
Whole chicken
Carrot, onion (medium) diced
1/2 lb ground turkey
3/4 Cup bread crumbs
one egg
1 TBSP dried oregano
1 TBSP fresh parsley (chopped)
one large or two small heads of escarole
1/4 Cup + Garnish Parmesan cheese
1/2 lb ditalini pasta
croutons
salt/pepper/olive oil
Preparation
Place bones in a roasting pan and coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place in a hot (400 degree) oven. Roast for 30-45 minutes or until the meat left on the bones is brown. Sauté the onion and carrots in a little olive oil until soft and the onions are translucent. About ten minutes.
Over high heat sauté the boned chicken, breast, thighs, meat from the legs in olive oil until brown, the chicken should be about 90 per cent done. Remove from heat and set aside.
For the little meatballs, mix into the ground turkey, bread crumbs, the 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan, dried oregano, chopped parsley, teaspoon each of salt and pepper a beaten egg and mix thoroughly with your hands. Using a small ice cream scoop make tiny meat balls with the mixture and set in refrigerator until ready to use.
When bones have roasted, place them in a soup pot along with the sautéed vegetables and enough water to cover (maybe an inch or so above the bones), bring to a boil and immediately lower to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for two to three hours. You can let the liquid reduce so that the broth will be richer, if it reduces below the bone add a little water but not so much that the broth is too diluted.
When the broth is finished strain out vegetables and bones and discard. Pour the strained broth back into soup pot. Add the meatballs one by one into the pot and bring to a rolling simmer for 10-12 minutes. take the reserved chicken and shred into bite size pieces and add to pot.
Fifteen minutes before you plan to serve the soup put chopped escarole into the simmering broth until wilted and stir wilted greens into the broth, meatballs and chicken.
Cook ditalini until al dente, add olive oil to drained pasta and set aside.
To serve, put pasta into bottom of soup bowl, ladle soup over pasta, place a few croutons in bowl, grate a good portion of Parmesan into soup and add a few shakes of black pepper
