Being my mothers daughter, there are very few things I love more than a good steamy bowl of soup and some nice crusty bread for dipping. If you need further evidence see here. The difficult thing is that I don’t always have 2 hours to spend preparing said soup. Sadness and woe ensue on any given weeknight when I need a warm bowl of pick-me-up. That is, until I sat down about a week ago to peruse my Giada’s Family Dinners Cookbook. What before my eyes did appear? Pasta e Fagioli! This looks easy, hearty and full of flavor! I made it and I was in heaven. The fiance mentioned that it tasted much like French Onion Soup but without all the icky strips of onions.
So follow along with me my fair friends on the wonder that is 30 minute Pasta e Fagioli.
First thing first, get a piece of cheesecloth out. What? You don’t have this hanging around your kitchen? For shame! Martha will smote you tonight in your sleep. You could always use a tea-ball or actually just chuck it into the pan sans-protection when the herbs are called for. Just make sure you fish them out when we pull said sachet. Anywhoo, lay out 2 good sized fresh rosemary sprigs, about 4-6 fresh thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf or two. Mine are bottom of the bottle bay leaves so they’re tiny. I used two-ish.
Now tie it up. I like to do this by tying the diagonal ends and then the other two diagonal ends to voila! make a pouch.
Giada calls for a cup of onion. I use about a half of a large onion and chop it pretty finely. I’m not so much for the huge chunks of onion. I wanna taste it but not have these big honkin pieces on my spoon.
The recipe calls for 3 ounces of pancetta. Unless you’re like me and have a food scale at home you’ll have to guesstimate. I had the deli cut it pretty finely and 3 ounces when I weighed it on my food scale ended up being this much:
I like to chop it up pretty finely but you could leave it as large or small as you like it.
Next up is garlic. Because I’m a garlic-o-holic I like a lot. I used about two large cloves and chopped them pretty finely. The good news is that when the apocalypse comes you can be pretty confident that I’m not a vampire. So at least I’ve got that goin’ for me.
In a heavy bottomed pan or stockpot add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil. Yes, I’m aware that there is fat in the pancetta. Yes, you could probably leave these out. But it adds a great flavor to the soup and if you want to omit it, sacrificing taste is up to you.
While that heats up, now is the time for the big guns. Dig out your largest measuring device because we need 5 and one half cups of chicken stock. Wow, I know.
By now the fat should be melted, drop in the onion, garlic and pancetta. Make sure you keep the heat at a medium/medium low temperature. I’d say 4-4.5 on most stoves. Just make sure they’re sweating and not browning because super brown onions are not good eats.
While that cooks, open a can of red kidney beans. Giada has got to be a freak of nature with the most strong intestinal tract on the planet. She originally called for two cans of kidney beans for this soup. I made it this way the first time…yeah. Trust me. Go with one can. Give them a good rinse until the water is running clear.
Next the original recipe called for a 3/4 cup of elbow macaroni. Because I omitted the second can of beans I upped the noodles to a whole cup. This worked out nicely and the texture/consistency of the soup stayed about the same.
By now, the veggies/pancetta should look like this. Next time I might cook the pancetta separately so that it got a bit crispy instead of wilted.
Now add in the beans and give it a good stir.
Add in the bucket of chicken stock and stir again.
Drop in the herb sachet, herb tea-ball or loose herbs now.
Kind of shove it down into the broth so that it really starts to infuse the soup with its super yummy flavors. Then crank the heat up to high.
While that comes to a boil, get out your blender or stick blender. After a few seconds/minutes it should be up to a rolling boil.
Pop the lid on, turn the heat back to medium and let simmer for 7 minutes. Why seven? Giada said so. Duh. When that time is up take a cup’s worth of the soup (beans and veg included) and put it in the base of your blender or in a container to stick blend with.
Give it a whir until its nicely puree’d. Somewhat like below and add it back to the soup.
Add the noodles and cook according to the package recommendations.
When thats finished extract the herb sachet, herb tea-ball, loose herbs.
Then all thats left to do is dish it up! Before I handed it to a very hungry fiance I sprinkled it with some yummy Parmesano Reggiano. I know, Giada would have been proud.
I think its at Its best when served up with some nice crusty bread for dunking. Yum! Enjoy guys!
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