Italian Meatball Soup (Quick & Easy Recipe) + Video
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My Italian Meatball Soup is loaded with pasta, veggies, and scrumptious meatballs cooked in a tomato broth. Make some tonight in just 30 minutes! When it comes to homemade meatballs in soup, these have a lot of flavor! You’ll want to make a large soup pot full of this for the winter months! It’s one of my family favorites!
A warm, hearty, feel-good dish with an easy clean up? Say no more!
I love this delicious soup recipe! It’s the perfect hearty meatball soup for a busy weeknight and a great way to feed the whole family.
Having a pot of homemade soup ready to enjoy is one of the perks of this dish.
It’s a delicious Italian wedding soup, with added Italian meatballs, and has the best rich flavor.
You’ll love the ease of the full instructions to make the meatball mixture – it’s a breeze!
Table of Contents
Italian Meatball Soup
This Italian soup with meatballs is rich and flavorful without being too heavy. It’s also perfect to satisfy those pasta cravings without overindulging!
If the sound of this meatball soup recipe is making you drool, take a look at my collection of soup and stew recipes.
With all the options, there is surely something for everyone.
Or try this simple wedding soup or gnocchi soup recipe!
For more traditional comfort foods, check out my chili as well as my gooey mac and cheese.
Both of them are slow cooker recipes, so they’re perfect for cold nights when you don’t want to spend too much time out from under your blanket.
See our tips for making perfect meatballs in the video! Look for it in the recipe card, at the bottom of this post.
Italian Meatball Soup Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Switch up the meat. Ground turkey or chicken are wonderful lean alternatives, or you can try spicy pork sausage to add a little heat.
- Prep ahead of time. You can always freeze your meatballs in advance, then drop them in the meatball soup straight from the freezer.
- Make it spicy. Include a pinch of red pepper flakes in the meat mixture – a little goes a long way!
- Don’t have Italian Seasoning? Combine the following in a small bowl for an easy substitute: ¾ teaspoon dried oregano, ¾ teaspoon dried basil, ¾ teaspoon dried rosemary, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, and ¼ teaspoon dried sage.
- Stir gently! Otherwise, the delicate meatballs may begin to break apart.
Don’t forget that you can add toppings and other fun flavors to this soup. Topping with parmesan cheese, and fresh parsley are two of my favorite flavors.
You can also mix in a little bit of black pepper and red pepper flakes to kick up the heat on this easy soup recipe.
Be aware of adding ingredient quantities, because I do think that this soup as written on the recipe card below already does have the best flavor.
Serving Suggestions
A simple salad with breadsticks or garlic knots for dipping is all you really need alongside this Italian soup with meatballs.
Or, stretch your servings by enjoying a smaller bowl and a grilled cheese sandwich!
Italian Meatball Soup FAQ
I don’t see why not! While I’m personally a fan of making my own, frozen can work too. You may have to adjust the cooking time and keep an eye on them to make sure they’re fully cooked, though.
Because the pasta cooks in the liquid, I don’t recommend it.
I do have a slow cooker Italian soup that has a similar flavor and plenty of veggies. Just swap the sausage with meatballs! For the pasta, prepare some on the stove, then stir it in right before serving.
Freezing this flavorful soup is a great first step to prepping meals for later. Freezing can be a great option to save for later, but just so you know, since this hearty soup has pasta in it, there is a chance that it unthaws with a different texture.
If you want to make the soup without the tiny little round pasta, then you can easily freeze this great recipe full of tender beef meatballs without any stress at all.
You can. If you want to make little meatballs out of lean ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken, this works! You will still be able to have juicy meatballs and make the best meatball soup, even when changing the type of meat.
While I’m a fan of making Italian-style meatballs, that doesn’t mean that you can’t change the ingredients a little bit. Turkey meatballs are still delicious and make tender meatballs!
The best part about making your own meatballs is that you can make round balls out of various types of meat. It may be a few extra steps to change and combine meatball ingredients, but it’s worth it.
You can even make mini meatballs and change the shape, too. I find that making my own meatballs are so much better than anything that I can buy at the grocery store. I love the added flavor that they bring!
Storing and Reheating Instructions
Once cooled to room temperature, transfer your meatball soup to an airtight container and enjoy within three days for best results.
Reheat in a saucepan on the stove or in the microwave-safe dish until the Italian meatball soup is warmed through to a food-safe temperature of 165°F.
Enjoy!
With love, from our simple kitchen to yours.
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Other Easy Soup Recipes
Italian Meatball Soup (Quick & Easy Recipe) + Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 4 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 celery ribs, washed and diced
- 8 cups low sodium beef broth
- 2 cups water
- 14.5 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 pound ditalini pasta, or your favorite pasta
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped Italian parsley
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
Meatballs
- 1 pound lean ground beef, 80-90% lean
- 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 large egg
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Instructions
- In a large 8 quart pot over medium-high heat, warm olive oil.
- Meanwhile, chop the carrots and celery. Add them to the warm pot. Cook vegetables for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the beef broth, water, tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Cover and bring to a boil.
- Meanwhile, combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with hands to combine. Be careful not to over mix or your meatballs will not be tender.
- Use a 1 tablespoon scoop to portion, then lightly shape the scoops into meatballs using your hands to roll them. Drop them into the broth, distributing them evenly around the pot. Cover. Allow soup to boil for 5 minutes. Stir meatballs gently, so they do not break apart.
- Add pasta. Stir. Cook 10 minutes or until pasta is done. Sprinkle basil and parsley over top, stir and serve.
Video
Donna’s Notes
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe’s nutritional value will vary depending on the ingredients used, measuring methods, and portion sizes.
Originally published January 2013. Updated and republished January 2025
Disclosure: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link your price will remain the same and The Slow Roasted Italian will automatically receive a small commission. Thank you for your support; it allows us to keep creating new recipes.
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Weโre Donna and Chad, the dream team behind The Slow Roasted Italian. Our focus is on taking complicated OUT of the kitchen. Life is busy enough, making meals should be fast and easy, to help make your life as simple as possible. Read More >>
This looks very yummy and easy to make. It is something the kids would definitely like. Thanks for sharing and I am following you now. I would love for you to follow along.
Jillian
http://puzzlemecomplete.blogspot.com/2013/01/dos-and-dont-for-2013.html
Very nice! I love meatballs – and this looks so richly flavored. Good one!
I just loved this recipe as well as those links. Beautiful pictures and detailed recipe makes all your posts so special!
http://cosmopolitancurrymania.blogspot.in/
Love this, sounds so perfect right now!
I like the new look and it sure does load more quickly. This soup looks delish and I plan on trying it as soon as the weather turns a little cooler here. Thank you for all your delicious recipes.
I enjoy your seeing many of your recipes, love all the great pictures that you include for each one. Absolutely hate all the ads you have.
Do you have an instant pot cooking conversion?
Your recipes are fantastic and you have the best pictures!!! Everything looks so delicious!!
I am so happy to hear you love our site. Enjoy and let us know what you are cooking.
The site looks great! Loads so much faster; I love it. I'll definitely try the meatball recipe and the chicken and dumplings recipe looks delish!
Thanks for sharing.
If I wanted to do this in a slow cooker, is there anything I'd have to do differently?
Do the meatballs cook in thw broth or do i bake/cook them first?
Has anyone actually made this? All I read in the reviews is โlooks greatโ but what about the flavour and taste? Any actual, useful comments? Thanks ๐ itโs on my to do list for this weeks meals so I will actually be telling you if itโs good or not
I made it today. Tastes good. I will make it again. I put more pasta in it because I wanted it to be thicker. I also used precooked frozen meatballs from an Italian market. Served it with some crusty bread to dunk in the juice.
Made this soup last night and it did not disappoint. The whole family loved it. Very flavorful and the meatballs were juicy. Made it exactly as the recipe stated, delicious. Definitely will make this soup again!
I need to make this dairy free. Would you just omit the Parmesan or substitute with something?
It's great! Ill use this recipe again!
Made this tonight with frozen meatballs… It was truly yummy… I added a handful of baby spinach… A small handful of fresh parsley… Is a large pinch of salt some pepper… Keeping tablespoon of minced garlic…. And maybe a teaspoon of onion powder… I did that at the end it was lacking something… 2 cups of Small pasta will equal about a 1/2 a pound
I love making my meatballs spicy, it just adds this nice kick. When I make it for company, though, I make it exactly as it says and I never fail to get compliments on them.
I have yet to find a video! I’ve looked every where and there’s never a video to click on. Anyone know where the video’s are?
Hi Anna,
The video is located at the bottom of the post in the recipe card, hope this helps.
TSRI Team Member,
Holli
Hi I would like to know if you could make your recipes available for cut and paste option. I love your post and have saved and used many of them, however, it is easier for me to be able to cut and paste as I do not have a printer.
Thank you
I love this soup!! I use Italian sausage meatballs to kick up the flavor . Quick, easy and delicious!!!โค๏ธ
Hi Kathy!
We’re so glad you enjoyed.
TSRI Team Member,
Devlyn