Pasta e Fagioli

 

We're all about peasant dishes here at Half Assed Kitchen. Because "peasant" usually means cheap and easy. Lately we've been addicted to the Pasta e Fagioli, a traditional meatless Italian dish, at our local grocery store. One day we were serving ourselves paper bowls of this steaming, spicy soup, when we thought, surely we can do better.

So we set out to concoct our own Pasta e Fagioli. Our version has added sausage (you can use ground or links). A fair amount of chopping is required, but you can easily skip the carrot and celery if your slicing wrist starts cramping.

This is a hearty, rich meal and serves at least 6 to 8.

Rating: 1/2 assed--if you skip celery and carrot--keeping it pushes this into 3/4 assed territory.

Here's what you need and how you do it

Olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

2 carrots, sliced (optional)

2 celery ribs, chopped (optional)

6 cups chicken broth

2 cans white beans

1 cup crushed tomatoes

3 or 4 sausages (we used pre-cooked Aidells) (optional)

1 cup macaroni, dry

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon rosemary

1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt

Ground black pepper

Dash red pepper flakes (optional)

In large stock pot, sauté onion, garlic, celery and carrots in olive oil until onions are tender. Fill pot with broth, add beans, crushed tomatoes, bay leaves, herbs, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Let simmer about 20 minutes, until vegetables have softened. Add macaroni and cook for 10 more minutes, or until pasta is al dente.

Serve with Rustic Rosemary Dinner Rolls.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Comments

[joods]

Made this last night to serve today with lunch. It was excellent! My family couldn't get enough of it. Served it with your Rustic Rosemary Rolls (delish!), and a Spinach Salad.
Thank you.
joods

[All Adither]

Awesome! Thanks for letting us know!

[Stacy (Mama-Om)]

Made it for dinner tonight. Yum. Each family member liked it (amazing!). I added two mild italian pork sausages and doubled the carrots. My kids love carrots. The only issue is that I used Tinkyada brown rice pasta and it is sucking up all my broth! :)

[Smalltown Mom]

I made this for dinner last night, using italian sausage which I precooked and sliced. It was delicious. We'll be making this again and again...