Italian Meatball Soup

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

27 Comments

5 from 14 votes
10 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
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Italian Meatball Soup is an easy hearty weeknight soup made with cannellini beans, parmesan cheese, diced tomatoes and oregano. 

If you’re a big fan of Italian soups like Classic Minestrone and want something that’s both hearty and filling, try Italian Meatball Soup. This recipe calls for frozen, ready cooked meatballs, but my recipe for Homemade Meatballs would take it to the next level!

You can never have too many delicious soup recipes to choose from so take a peek around our Soup Recipes for even more delicious options!

Italian Meatball Soup with ladleITALIAN MEATBALL SOUP 

It’s hard to eat right on weeknights, but you can only get so much fast food before you start craving something hearty and homemade, especially now that the nights are longer and colder. Soup is the perfect solution, since you can make it a few days ahead, it reheats well, and you can reheat it in a hurry on nights when no one feels like cooking. You’re definitely gonna want to make a large pot, because people will definitely want seconds.

Based on the occasion, you can customize the flavor of the Italian Meatball Soup very easily without a ton of effort. It also dresses up really well so you can serve it as a main course at everything from fancy parties to in paper plates at the kids’ soccer practice.

MORE SOUP RECIPES

HOW TO MAKE ITALIAN MEATBALL SOUP 

  • Bring the beef broth to a boil.
  • Add in the meatballs, tomatoes, beans and spices.
  • Cover, reduce heat and cook for 20 minutes.
  • Add parmesan cheese right before serving.
  • Serve with homemade dinner rolls.

Italian Beef Meatball Soup

VARIATIONS ON ITALIAN MEATBALL SOUP 

  • Spices: Try adding in a dash of Italian seasoning, red pepper, bay leaves, kosher salt, or black pepper to taste to spice up the flavor and give it a very different taste without having to completely change the recipe. Make sure to mix the spices in well so that they don’t all settle to the top.
  • Noodles: You can add noodles to this recipe to make it even more filling. Try penne, orzo, or ditalini noodles, or, if you’re trying to keep your diet low in carbs, add zucchini noodles. It is also common to serve this Italian meatball soup with rice, and I would recommend using wild rice to play with the soup’s texture.
  • Veggies: You can add in a lot more veggies to give more flavor to the soup. If you’ve never tried Italian meatball soup with spinach, you should definitely give it a shot. It’s absolutely delicious, and the bitter notes of the baby spinach pair really well with the richness of the meatballs.
  • Meatballs: If you’re trying to reduce your cholesterol, you can replace the ground beef based meatballs with ground turkey or chicken meatballs and change out the beef stock for chicken stock or chicken broth. Changing up the meat will alter the flavor slightly, but they are delicious in their own right and pair well with a lot of side dishes.

WHAT GOES WITH ITALIAN MEATBALL SOUP?

HOW LONG IS ITALIAN MEATBALL SOUP GOOD?

  • Serve: Don’t leave your soup out for longer than 2 hours at room temperature. You should finish making it right before you intend to serve it, or let it cool and put it in the fridge for later.
  • Store: Allow the Italian Meatball Soup to completely cool down to room temperature, then seal it up in something airtight. You can also cover the top of the pot with plastic wrap, but make sure that you get a cool seal on it. Properly stored, Italian Meatball Soup will last up to 3 days in the fridge.
  • Freeze: In an airtight container, Italian Meatball Soup will last up to 6 months frozen. Once again, it’s very important to let it cool before you store it, and you also want to keep it tightly wrapped.

Meatball Soup

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Italian Meatball Soup

Italian Meatball Soup is an easy weeknight soup made with beans, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and herbs - ready in 30 minutes! Try today!
Yield 10 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine Italian
Author Sabrina Snyder
Italian Meatball Soup with ladle full
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 4 cups beef broth
  • 16 ounces Italian meatballs , frozen, cooked (15-20 pieces)
  • 3 cloves garlic , minced
  • 29 ounces diced tomatoes , undrained
  • 29 ounces cannellini beans , drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese , shredded

Instructions

  • Add the beef broth to a large Dutch oven on medium-high heat and bring it to a boil.
  • Add in the meatballs, garlic, diced tomatoes, cannelini beans, salt, pepper and Italian seasonings.
  • Cook on medium heat, covered, for 20 minutes.
  • Add Parmesan cheese right before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 182kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 408mg | Potassium: 234mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 77IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 91mg | Iron: 2mg

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Collage photos of Italian Meatball Soup

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  2. I have made this soup numerous times and every time I get compliments. Thank you so much for sharing! It’s so easy and a keeper!

    Reply

  4. Bravo!

    I made and froze your Homemade Meatballs a couple months ago so it made making this delish soup even easier. Amazing the depth of flavor with so few ingredients and not having to nurse at a simmer for hours.

    I have a serious aversion to cannellini and kidney beans (the reason I hated chili until I was in my 30’s and realized kidney beans are not a requirement–duh!) so I used noodles. I’ll play around with other beans in future preparations. But this is a most excellent meatball soup!

    Reply

  5. Made this for lunch and it was so good. No cannalini beans so I used a can of great northern and one navy bean. Excellent way to used frozen meatballs.

    Reply

  7. I used this recipe last night! It’s so good that we are having leftovers for lunch today! I added some ditalini pasta to the left overs just to stretch it a little bit and it’s delicious! A new favorite in our house!

    Reply

  10. Making this for the second time …. quick, easy, & very delicious. Perfect for a cold evening or those days when you forget to plan for dinner!

    Reply

  12. Did not expect how good this was going to be because it seemed like there were not many ingredients but it turned out great and my husband loved it!!

    Reply

  13. I’ve made it a couple of different times now. Both times, using whatever beans are in the cabinet (kidney or white northern). It was great both times.

    Reply