You can’t make Italian wedding soup without escarole. Well, you can. But it just doesn’t feel right. The pasta shape is flexible. (Or optional, in the case of some recipes.) The meatball makeup is flexible. The beans are flexible. The broth is flexible. But the greens? No, not flexible. It has to be escarole. Why? Because, wedding soup or otherwise, escarole is the best green for soups. Hands down. Full stop. End of story. Period.
Wait, what is escarole though? It’s green and leafy, but is it like kale? Like spinach? Like lettuce? Well, it looks kind of like all of those things. Escarole is leafier than kale, and is usually sold in bunches that look a lot like a head of lettuce, with short, wide, wavy-edged leaves. The color and texture of the leaves varies—those on the outside are darker-green and a bit tougher, while the interior leaves are pale-yellow and more tender.
Flavor-wise, escarole is part of the chicory family, which means it’s related to stuff like endive, radicchio, and other bitter greens. And yes, as the family name “bitter greens” suggests, escarole is a tad bitter. There’s a sharpness that comes with escarole's wide leaves, not quite as much as radicchio, but definitely more than a piece of romaine.
At the grocery store, escarole can be easy to miss, since it’s a chicory that looks like lettuce. If your grocery store carries it, you usually won't find it in the bins with its cousins radicchio and endive; instead, it's normally tucked up near the heads of lettuce and bunches of kale and collards.
So, what makes it so good for soups? Why would we choose it over spinach or kale? Well, it’s a texture thing. Kale is nice in soup, but it's so hearty that it can dominate everything else—you really have to slice it up into small pieces. And spinach—especially baby spinach—tends to lose too much texture as it simmers, and can sometimes go a little slimy. Escarole hits a happy medium: tender enough to cook quickly and maintain some integrity, with a flavor that neither overpowers nor gets lost. It also looks beautiful, turning semi-translucent as it cooks, giving your soup hues of green from dark to light.
And it’s not just a one trick pony. Escarole can be used in a variety of ways. It’s amazing with sausage and beans in pasta. It works well sautéed simply with olive oil or thrown into a pot of beans for added color and a little bite.
You might be thinking, well, with all this success and greatness, escarole must be kind of arrogant. What is escarole going to bring to the table with that attitude? All the praise surely goes to its head. Nope. Escarole is great. Humble. Polite. Gracious. All qualities that help build a lasting marriage. Or at least a matrimonial soup.
