Pasta Fagioli

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. I have a treat for you today – a delicious healthy soup, and a guest post from my mom! She made pasta fagioli (an old family favorite recipe) for me when she was visiting a few months ago, so I thought it was only right that she should write the blog post about it too. Enjoy! 🙂

I have to admit when Megan asked if I would like to guest post for this pasta fagioli recipe I was a little intimidated, but after I thought about it I realized that I would like to do it to honor my own mother.  It was my mom who taught me to make this soup, and she learned to make it from her mother.  It is a simple meatless soup that feeds a lot of people which is just what my grandmother needed to feed her 7 children as an immigrant Italian widow.  Neither my mother nor my grandmother had a recipe, so I had to learn by watching and guessing at amounts.  I didn’t write down my recipe, either, until my children were adults and wanted to make grandma’s wonderful soup.  My mom was diagnosed with cancer last January and passed away in June.  She loved this soup, and it was one of the last things she asked me to make for her.  So, here’s my mom’s recipe.  I hope you love it as much as we do.

Print Recipe

Pasta Fagioli

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 15.5 oz can kidney beans, drained
• small pasta or noodles

Directions:

1. Place the carrots, celery, potatoes and onion in a large pot. Cover with water and add 1 Tbsp salt. Heat over high heat until it begins to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook until potatoes are soft.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbsp oil in a medium sized pot. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add in the crushed tomatoes. Rinse out the can with ~1/4 cup of water and add to the pot. Stir in 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Cook on medium heat until it begins to bubble. Stir in the kidney beans and continue simmering until the first pot is done cooking.
3. Add the medium pot to the large pot and continue simmering. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. If desired, add in 1 or 2 bouillon cubes for extra flavor. If the soup looks thick, add in some extra water. Continue simmering for an hour.
4. Cook noodles separately according to package directions. When ready to serve, place some noodles in a bowl and spoon the soup on top. Store the noodles and soup separately. The soup tends to thicken as it sits, so you may need to add some water when you reheat it.