Easy on the table

Italian tomato soup with fennel and meatballs

So friend, the Easter days are behind us again, the bellies filled and the Easter eggs stuck around the hip area. Time to pick up the thread again and set our sights on summer. To balance things out, we are having a homemade meal soup today. Fresh, full of greens, and quick to prepare. If you really want to hit the brakes, leave the pasta out. Enjoy your meal.

Italian tomato soup with fennel and meatballs

• 4 sausages
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika powder
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 500 grams of tomatoes
• 1 litre of vegetable stock
• 1 fennel bulb
• cup of conchigliette (soup pasta)
• salt and pepper

1. Remove the skin from the sausages. Mix the fennel seeds and paprika powder into the meat and form balls the size of a large marble. Set aside.
2. Take a deep pan and sauté the chopped onion in some olive oil. Add the garlic.
3. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and add them to the pan. Let simmer on low heat for twenty minutes.
4. Add the broth and then puree the soup with an immersion blender or in a blender.
5. Meanwhile, cut the greens and a small piece from the bottom of the fennel. Keep the greens aside for garnish. Halve the fennel, cut out the hard core, and slice the fennel into very thin slices.
6. Add the sausage balls, the pasta, and the fennel to the soup and let it cook for a few more minutes. Just check if the pasta is cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Divide the soup between two bowls and garnish with the fennel greens.
8. Serve with a thick slice of sourdough bread with a good spread of butter and a twist of sea salt.