Ina Garten Shares Her All-Time Favorite Soup Recipe for Dinner

Whether winter where you are means just needing a light coat or having to steel yourself against snowdrifts and subzero temperatures, there’s one thing that improves everything this season, and that’s soup. You know this, I know this, and obviously the queen of our kitchens (and hearts), Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa knows this. Which is why she so kindly sent out a recipe for her own favorite soup this week in her newsletter. 

“It’s freezing in East Hampton,” she says, declaring that to be soup weather. She goes on to explain that the recipe — for Italian wedding soup — is her “all-time favorite” to eat for dinner, and that it’s just as good reheated for lunch the next day. The recipe comes from her 2008 book, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics. “It’s a rich chicken soup filled with lots of fresh spinach, pasta, plus chicken meatballs that are roasted instead of fried — so easy!” But, she warns, the only danger is keeping yourself from eating all the meatballs out of it.

The meatballs themselves are made from pretty typical ingredients, using both ground chicken and chicken sausage, along with cheese, garlic, breadcrumbs, milk, and egg. You just combine the ingredients, loosely shape them, and roast them in the oven, so not quite as labor-intensive as some versions. The soup is also quick, assuming you’ve already got a batch of Ina’s homemade chicken stock on hand. Otherwise you need an extra four or five hours to make that. But if you’ve got the stock, you basically just sauté the vegetables, add some stock and wine, then boil it just long enough to cook the pasta. You add in the meatballs and a little spinach at the end, and then garnish with Parmesan cheese.

Seems like a good way to warm up your body and your kitchen — plus make sure that your house smells delicious!

Read more: Italian Wedding Soup from Ina Garten