Pasta e Fagioli 🥫

A super comforting soup full of veggies.

I love beans and I love tomatoes. And garlic. And pasta. And soup. Pasta e fagioli literally translates to pasta and beans. It is a great dish for this weird spring-winter time we are dealing with in the Northeast.

This tomato-based soup is perfect for packing in a bunch of veggies like celery and carrots — you can even add some zucchini or squash. The recipe is also super adaptable. I often make it vegan with just vegetable broth, but many traditional variations have chicken broth, pancetta, or parmesean rinds in it. I find the soup to be just as delectable when it is only veggie based.

Pasta e fagioli is also perfect for using vegetables that are on their last days of freshness or those that are imperfect. They’re all cooked down so it doesn’t matter!

Let’s get into my pasta e fagioli-based recipe (for sure not an authentic Italian recipe).

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The recipe

Equipment:

• Dutch oven or boiling pot

• Wooden spoon

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Yellow or White Onion, chopped

• 4 cloves Garlic, minced

• 2 medium Carrots, chopped

• 3 medium Celery stalks, chopped

• 28oz can of Crushed Tomatoes

• 16oz can of Diced Tomatoes*

• 2 cups Broth of Choice

• 1 cup Water**

• 1 cup Ditalini pasta***

• 16oz can Butter Beans

• 16oz Cannellini Beans

• 1/2 tbsp Tomato Paste

• 2 tbsp Olive Oil

• 2 Bay Leaves

• 1/2 tbsp Basil (dried or fresh)

• Salt & Black Pepper to taste

*Omit this if you want a smoother soup. I like it a little chunkier. You can also use fresh tomatoes here if you’d like.

**You may not need all the water. Or you may need more. It is only necessary to loosen the soup if it is too THICCCCCCCC. The pasta will soak up a lot of liquid.

***If you can’t find this shape, you can use a small rigatoni or penne, orzo, or rice. Pasta is best in this dish but switch it up if you want.

Steps:

1. Add your olive oil to your pot and add onions, celery, and carrots. Cook until the onions are translucent and the carrots and celery are soft. If you add pancetta, add it in prior to the veggies.

2. Add in your garlic. Let cook until fragrant and soft.

3. Once all soft, add tomato paste and mix around so everything has a light coating.

4. Add your beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, broth, water, herbs, salt & pepper, and pasta. Note that your pasta will soak up a lot of the liquid. If you want a thicker soup, that’s cool, but you may need to add more water if you want a brothier soup. If you add a parmesean rind, add this in now.

5. Bring your soup to a boil to cook the pasta. Boil until the pasta is soft.

6. If your soup is very thick, add some water or more broth to loosen. Let it simmer for a bit if you add more liquid to infuse the flavors.

7. Serve with some cronchy bread and parmesean cheese.

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Let me know if you try this and if you make any changes! I’d love to see and try myself.

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