I'd like to introduce you to my mom's famous (to our family) Pasta Fagioli soup. During the winter, my mom makes this soup like it's going out of style. Over the years, she's learned a few things while making this soup: always make a double batch & it's nice to add more pancetta. The double batch thing is important because she can pull some out of the freezer on a whim for my dad or she can be prepared for when my brother comes home from New York and raids her fridge (he inhales this soup, even when it's cold!).
For years I was reluctant to try this soup; I don't know why. I guess have weird issues with hot tomatoes and the thought having beans with pasta kinda weirded me. I dunno!
One day last year I was hanging out at my parents house and my mom convinced me to some. Let me tell you I how dumb I felt for wasting many years of my eating career without this soup. It was AH-MAZING. I am a changed woman.
This is one of those recipes that instantly becomes a staple in your life. You'll go on auto pilot when you're grocery shopping and always buy the ingredients so you're never too far from a batch of this soup. Heck! You might even have some stocked in your freezer for a moment's notice like my mom.
It's hearty, comforting and pleases all the men in my life; I like that in a soup.
And we're off!
Gather your ingredients.
Heat olive oil in a pot. Add onions, pancetta & garlic.
Sweat those onions and then add fresh sage (KEY INGREDIENT!) and red pepper flakes.
Now it's time to add the tomatoes, salt & pepper and you stew it for a bit.
BEAN TIME! So my mom makes the beans from scratch. I cheated and used a can of beans.
It totally worked. It totally tasted awesome. It totally saved me A LOT OF TIME.
I totally might have burned the dried beans I intended to cook for this soup. I don't want to talk about it.
So the beans get added to the base along with your stock. This is the tail end of that process.
After simmering for awhile, you add in the pasta! It cooks and then your soup is ready!
But wait! What do we have here? What time is it?
It's TOPPING TIME!
With the additions of freshly grated Parmesan cheese...
some fresh Italian parsley and a drizzle of top notch extra virgin olive oil....
We have the most spectacular pasta soup combo!
MAKE THIS.
Love this.
Store it in your freezer.
Stock your shelves.
Always buy pancetta when you're grocery shopping.
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Pasta Fagioli Soup
Print This RecipeServes 6
(recipe Adapted from Beans & Rice Cookbook By Williams Sonoma)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 oz. pancetta (or bacon), minced
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (15oz. canned)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cups (32oz.) chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 15oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup dried pasta (medium shells or elbow macaroni)
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped (for garnish)
In a soup pot over medium low heat, warm the olive oil. Add the pancetta or bacon, onion and garlic and saute slowly, stirring until onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sage, red pepper flakes and salt & pepper to taste and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the beans and stock and simmer for another 30 minutes.
Add the pasta to the soup and simmer until the pasta is tender, 12-15 minutes.
Ladle the soup into individual bowls. Garnish with the cheese and a few cut fresh parsley. Serve immediately.
(This recipe is not doubled.)
45 Responses to “Pasta Fagioli Soup” Leave a reply ›
What editing software do you use to add your text? I must know.
I love pasta, I love parmasen cheese and I love beans so I am giving this one a try!
This sounds freaking awesome!
this soup looks like a dream right now. at 5:52am. and i'll take seconds!
Really, what could be better than pasta and soup combined into one awesome dish. I can't wait to make this! And I agree with your mom - always add more pancetta!
This looks a-mazing. I'm not always a soup fan, but I could get behind this one!
Mmmm. I think I'll have to make this later in the week!
totally making this next weekend. I can already imagine the amazing taste...
Yes, I needed a new soup. Going out in the rain to get the ingredients!
Mmm. It's definitely a soup night, and definitely going to include white beans, pasta and tomatoes.
this looks so good! I love fresh sage, I think it gets overlooked outside of Thanksgiving.
I've totally burned beans before. It's really upsetting...I feel for you.
Thanks! Now I have dinner tonight!
Oh yeah! This looks fantastic. Mmmmm....pancetta.
My mom is the person responsible for making pasta fagioli too. Except hers is always more of a stew consistency than a soup. I think she might also use sausage. It has been awhile since she's made it. I do have a big batch of white beans that need to get used up. I may have just found dinner for tonight!
i looove soup in the winter time. i could eat it every.single.night. i'm so excited to have a new recipe to add to my rotation as this looks beyond amazing! yummm!
You've convinced me to try making this! I've seen recipes for pasta fagioli, but I was also weirded out about beans and pasta together :P
Yum. I don't love winter, but I do love it for soup like this!
I can't even tell you how good this looks right now!! It's so cold in my house and this would warm it right up!
this looks so good! do you think it would be ok if i omitted the pancetta (vegetarian)?
Yup!
What could possibly be weird about beans and pasta?! Well, at least you realized the error of your ways haha. Looks delicious!
Will give this a try...always looking for soups this time of year! Looks amazing :)
this looks really really good. I can envision adding kale to it if I was feeling extra healthy. Or extra-extra pancetta if I was not.
This is one of my favorite soups ever, but I don't think I've ever had it with pancetta! That must make it over the top delicious!
Oh man.. I just may have found dinner for tomorrow night...
What a delicious looking recipe. Kinda want to take a bite out of my screen.
Oh, I love having recipes like that around! It looks fantastic, and I can bear the bean and pasta combo - love it! I sort of wish I could have some right this second!
I don't like soup, but this looks like a recipe that might change that. Bummer that we're heading into Summer here in New Zealand. Shall save the recipe for next winter!
Snap! Totally what I was thinking.
I'm in New Zealand too and was just thinking what a shame it is that it's starting to get warm! This recipe will either have to wait until winter or I'll just wait for a rainy Auckland day and go to town ;-)
I love that I'm seeing all these delicious winter recipes on the US blogs I read, I'm going to be so prepared when winter rolls around over here!
I made this last night. It just looked so good to me that I had to have my husband stop at the store to get the ingredients. I used bacon instead of pancetta and white northern beans. I also added a bit of sugar to it just to tone down the acid a bit. Wow! Me, my husband and my three year old ate almost all of it last night. There was enough leftover for one bowl today. Seriously, thank you for sharing! I am already thinking about when I can make it again. I think that next time I will cook the bacon and then remove it from the pan and cook the onions in the fat. Then I will crumble the bacon on top when I add the parmesan cheese before serving. I just wasn't crazy about what the bacon did after the liquid was added. It got kind of stringy and weird colored. Other than that, this was the best soup! Thanks again!
That does look like a great soup. I probably would have waited for years to try it too, but my mom never made much besides meatloaf - ha!
Hey - I need your fancy fonts - did you buy a font package or what? Mine are all lame...
i'd like to come over and eat soup with you!
I made this last night!! We don't have anymore leftovers :(((((( IT WAS SO YUMMY! Thanks for posting this!! :D
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I made this soup for dinner tonight and it was delish! It is going to go into my dinner rotation. Keep 'em coming!
mmm this looks so good! there are few things more comforting than soup
Pasta fagioli is one of my favorites! I've never thought of adding sage, but it's definitely going into the next batch I make. One of my favorite tricks to thicken the soup up a bit is to mash a small amount of the beans before stirring them into the pot. Adds extra bean-y flavor!
I made this the other night, it was soooo good. I honestly couldn't stop eating it!
This is the second time in 1 week that I've made this soup! It's sooooo good! My husband isn't a soup lover but he went back for seconds!
I love this soup! I used leek instead of onion because I had them in the house and boy it was good! You're right, sage is key. I'm considering getting a bigger pot so I can make a double batch. This batch is not going to last! Perfect for a driech winter day in Scotland.
Wow! Leek sounds like a good addition. Thanks for the recommendation!
This sounds a lot like our family recipe. I won't make it unless I have time to make the homemade pasta to go in it. A sure way to warm you up on a cold Chicago day.
Did this tonight for the second time this week. Excellent recipe. I also added a few fresh chopped basil leaves, which works nicely, as well as a finely minced carrot. And for the pasta, I used the baby shells, or conchigliette, which wind up being just about the same size as the beans. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
love the basil addition! Thanks for trying it out, Thane.