Food & Drink

Nine Spoons Serves Nostalgia In A Bowl

Using an old family recipe, Jen Ferrone and her father recreate delicious wedding soup.

by Ghezal Barghouty | Oct. 3, 2017 | 3:00 PM

Karin McKenna

Karin McKenna

As a child, Jen Ferone looked forward to one thing every Christmas Eve: her grandma’s legendary wedding soup. Decades later, Ferone partnered with her father, Joe Becker, to create Nine Spoons, a soup company built on nostalgia. The pair follows the original wedding soup recipe using familiar ingredients such as endive, celery, spinach, meatballs, chicken and hand-rolled dumplings instead of the traditional acini di pepe. “We think the texture of the dumplings really makes it,” says Ferone. “That’s what makes it a lot different.” But the dumplings were also a matter of necessity. Ferone believes her grandma added the dumplings to help feed her nine children — hence the company’s name. “She was always doing things to stretch meals,” Ferone says. When feeding her family today, Ferone likes to top her soup with Parmesan cheese and adds a loaf of crusty Italian bread alongside. “A lot of the time, you get wedding soup and it’s before the meal,” she says. “When you eat this, you realize that this is a meal in itself.” ninespoonssoup.com

Get the Latest in Your Inbox

Whether you're looking for daily news bites, the latest bites or bite-sized adventures, the Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter experiences have something for everyone.