Italian Wedding Soup (East Side Mario's Copycat)

For the tiny meatballs:

• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1/2 lb ground extra lean beef
• 1/2 small grated onion ensure it's a small onion since too much moisture from a large onion will make shaping the meatballs difficult
• 2 cloves of grated garlic
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest optional
• 3 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp of milk
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste around 1 1/2 teaspoons

For the soup:

• 3/4 cup of acini de pepe pasta East Side Mario's uses this, but you can substitute any other small pasta if unavailable
• 5 ounces or 140 grams of fresh baby spinach you can also use frozen chopped spinach, but in that case, use much less, around 30 grams
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest optional
• 7 cups of chicken broth if using store-bought, 2 cartons of around 900ml each
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• fresh parsley
• salt to taste