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| Alternative names | Minestra maritata (in Italian) |
|---|---|
| Course | Primo (Italian course) |
| Place of origin | Italy |
Italian wedding soup, known in Italian as minestra maritata, is a soup consisting mainly of green vegetables and meat in chicken broth. It is a staple in many Italian restaurants and diners in the United States.
Contents
The term wedding soup comes from a mistranslation of the Italian language phrase minestra maritata ('married soup'). Minestra maritata more directly translates to 'wedded broths', referencing a marriage of the meats and vegetables inside the broth. [1] Such a pairing is gendered, with a porcine meat representing a man and the green vegetables a woman. The dish has no association with weddings in Italy. [2]
This cultural metaphor of Italian wedding soup is described by the Neapolitan food writer Nello Oliviero, emphasizing the contrast of the fat of the pig with the delicacy of the vegetables: [2]
[It takes] time, competence, patience and money [to make a great marriage]. The vegetables must be selected for variety and picked over, washed many times. The husband is put on to bubble in his broth, which must be skimmed, defatted, strained and, at the end, clarified, so that it becomes limpid and of an amber hue. It is in this broth that the vegetables become tender.
Italian wedding soup does not include tomatoes, as its origin predates their introduction to Italy. In the late 16th century, the prelate Giovanni Battista del Tufo described the soup as "the daily food of the true Neapolitan". [2]
