- Angela Kinsey and Joshua Snyder’s cookbook, You Can Make This!, features some of their favorite recipes and the stories behind them.
- The first recipes they made for each other—Italian Wedding Soup and Pumpkin Snickerdoodles—are included in the book.
- Packed with veggies, beans and flavorful chicken meatballs, the soup is the perfect hearty meal for cooler fall and winter nights.
When Angela Kinsey and her husband, Joshua Snyder, were first dating, she made him a pot of soup. “He got the cold bug that was going around that year and wasn’t feeling well and I thought, I’m gonna make him soup,” she shares. The Office star didn’t cook much—she didn’t even have a pot big enough. “I had never made soup,” Kinsey adds. But she came across a recipe for Italian Wedding Soup that she thought would be perfect.
When Kinsey showed up at Snyder’s door with the pot of soup, she said he looked at her like there was a ray of light behind her. “I think especially when you’re not feeling well, if someone feeds you and cares for you, it’s such a loving gesture, right?” she shares. “It’s a love language to prepare and cook food for someone.”
While Snyder, a self-taught chef and baker, may be the one who does most of the cooking at home, Kinsey still makes that soup on special occasions like Father’s Day. It’s such a constant in their family that when they started working on their cookbook, You Can Make This!, they knew it had to be in it.
And as I reviewed a copy before my interview with the duo, the recipe immediately caught my attention—perhaps because our family adores soup. When the weather gets cooler, I make a pot of soup once a week. My husband has had surgery twice in the past seven years, and the first thing he requested after each one was soup. I make a pot of gingery chicken-vegetable soup whenever someone in the house is sick. Soup really does have the power to heal what ails you. And that Italian Wedding Soup looked delicious. (Find the recipe below.)
What I love about this cookbook is how personal it is—you feel like you’re sitting in their kitchen gabbing with them while they cook for you. But that didn’t surprise me. I’ve rewatched The Office too many times to count, which led me to the Office Ladies, the rewatch podcast co-hosted by Kinsey and Jenna Fischer, who played Angela and Pam, respectively. After listening for so many years, I feel like I know them. They share stories about what’s going on in their lives. They go off on tangents about things that piss them off and bring them joy. Those little things really foster a connection between the hosts and listeners. And Kinsey and Snyder’s cookbook has that same vibe.
There are pictures of their family throughout. They share stories about the recipes they chose to include. “Overnight Coffee Cake holds a special place in my heart,” Snyder writes. “When I was growing up, my mom used to make it for me and my sisters every year on Christmas morning. To this day, the aroma of this coffee cake brings back warm memories from my childhood, and now it’s a tradition I continue with my own family.” Kinsey grew up living in Indonesia and Texas, so there are recipes inspired by those places in the cookbook as well, like Honey Sriracha Grilled Chicken with Spicy Fried Rice and Fritos Chili Pie.
Along with the Italian Wedding Soup recipe is the first recipe that Snyder made for Kinsey, Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. “We’re a blended family, so for us, dating was with children,” Kinsey told me. “So it was really sweet because he made cookies for my daughter and I.”
Snyder says it’s one of the first recipes he mastered: “You just know they’re gonna turn out great every time.”
So last weekend, I decided to make both of the recipes. The snickerdoodles sounded like the perfect thing to bring along to a fall potluck, so my 13-year-old daughter and I made a triple batch. The cookies were perfectly soft and chewy and tasted like the season. As I was leaving the party with the empty platter, a 7-year-old stopped me to ask if I had made the snickerdoodles. I told him I had. He said, “Those were really good, one of the best cookies I’ve ever had.” I would argue that kids are cookie aficionados so I thought that was the ultimate compliment.
The next day, I made the soup. It was a sunny but cold October day in Vermont, perfect soup-making weather. While I watched an episode of The Office on my iPad (seemed fitting, right?), I shaped the meatballs and chopped the vegetables. I got out the Le Creuset pot I received for a wedding gift and heated the oil. I sautéed the onion, carrots and celery, then added garlic. I poured in a cup of red wine. Next I added chopped kale and broth and let everything simmer for an hour, our stomachs’ growling while the heady aroma filled our home. Then I added the beans and meatballs, letting the latter cook through, and ladled it into bowls. Dinner’s ready, I hollered to my family.
Photographer: Carolyn Malcoun.
We were quiet as we took the first few bites. The meatballs were perfectly seasoned and tender. There were plenty of vegetables. The broth was richly seasoned. “This is one of the best soups you’ve ever made,” my husband said. “It’s an 11 out of 10.” I think once you make it, you’ll agree.
Italian Wedding Soup
Serves 6
For the meatballs
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the soup
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
6 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
4 celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry red wine
1 large tomato, seeded and diced
3 cups chopped kale leaves
8 cups chicken broth
2 dried bay leaves
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup water
1. Make the meatballs: In a large bowl, mix together the ground chicken, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, egg, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper until well combined. Form into golf ball–size meatballs and set aside on a plate or baking sheet.
2. Make the soup: In a Dutch oven or large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and sauté until softened, about 6 to 7 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper and stir in the garlic, cooking until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Add the red wine and diced tomato and bring to a simmer. Stir in the kale and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth and bay leaves, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, slightly covered, for about 1 hour.
4. Remove the bay leaves and add the cannellini beans and the water. Increase heat to medium and bring to a gentle simmer. Carefully add the meatballs to the soup and cook, covered, until the meatballs are cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, or until they reach an internal temperature of 165°F. Serve hot.
Excerpted from: YOU CAN MAKE THIS: MORE THAN 100 FAMILY FAVORITE RECIPES by Angela Kinsey and Josh Snyder. Copyright © 2025 Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LCC.
