Italian wedding soup
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Italian wedding soup, known in Italian as Template:Lang, 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, and is central to Neapolitan cuisine; described by food writer Arthur Schwartz as "the king of Neapolitan soups."<ref name=":0" />
The term wedding soup comes from a mistranslation of the Italian language phrase Template:Lang ('married soup'). Template:Lang more directly translates to 'wedded broths', referencing a marriage of the meats and vegetables inside the broth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>
This cultural metaphor of Italian wedding soup is elaborated on by the Neapolitan food writer Nello Oliviero, emphasizing the contrast of the fat of the pig with the delicacy of the vegetables:<ref name=":0" />
Italian wedding soup does not include tomatoes, as its origin predates their introduction to Italy. In Campania, broccoli rabe is a key ingredient, described by Schwartz as "essential, a law. In the late 16th century, the prelate Giovanni Battista del Tufo described the soup as "the daily food of the true Neapolitan," affirmed by Schwartz, who wrote it was "the mainstay of the people before pasta became the staff of life."<ref name=":0" />