A Simple Soup! Pasta e Fagioli (G.L.)

This recipe mostly comes from a Giada De Laurentis recipe. I have to be honest, I’ve made some of her recipes in the past and actually Not liked them, but this one is pretty dang tasty, affordable, and quick!

Here’s what you need:

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp EVOO +

3 oz thin sliced pancetta (Give or Take)

5 ¾ cups of Chicken Stock --- don’t forget about the fact that you can easily make your own veggie stock, just fyi

2 (14 oz cans of Red Kidney Beans (*I altered this, only used 1 can bc I added green bean)

¾ cup Maccaroni (*altered this too)

Fresh or dried Thyme, Rosemary, and Bay Leaf (* had the dried and ground stuff on hand so that’s what I used)

1 cup chopped white onion

Est 4 tbsp Tomato Paste (*my addition)

2 cloves garlic (*altered! Of course)

Parmesan for sprinkling on top, grated

Fresh Green beans (small handful, *this was my own addition)

You can start by getting all your chopping out of the way. Chop up your Onion and Garlic* Recipe called for 2 cloves, I’m sure I used at least 5!* Now trim off the edges of your Green Beans *my addition in exchange for one of the cans of kidney beans; so instead of two cans I used one can and a small handful of fresh Green Beans* and cut each into 2 or 3 pieces so that they are bite sized.

Put your tablespoons of butter and olive oil in the pan on a medium heat, and begin to fry down your onions and pancetta. Add in the garlic a little later so that it doesn’t burn, you just want it to become fragrant; fry until fat is rendered. This takes maybe 5 minutes or more depending on how you like your pancetta.  

In the meantime take a little cheese cloth and kitchen twine. Cut a square keeping the fabric folded so that it’s double layered about 2x2, and put in your dried or fresh rosemary, bay leaf, and thyme. (I had the ground stuff, so I just chucked a pinch into the pot instead of putting it in the cheese cloth).

Once the fat is rendered from the pancetta, the onions are nice and clear, and the garlic is fragrant you can add in your chicken stock and *your tomato paste if using. I liked the idea of adding a little tomato paste because I felt it added another flavor layer to the soup! Also I only estimate that it was about 4 tbsp because about 1000 million billion years ago I realized that I was wasting tomato paste and it pissed me off. So I looked up some storage ideas and found out that you could take an ice cube tray and fill each with paste, freezing it in cubes, and saving it in a baggie in the freezer for whenever you needed some. So in order to at least try and adhere to measurements for different recipes…. And because you actually can MESS UP a dish royally with too much tomato paste (because its bitter in large amounts!), I measured it out and got about 2 tablespoons into each tray cube. I used 2 cubes. 2x2= 4 Ta Da!

Another Note * Since I didn’t get to actually make the chicken stock myself, or maybe some veggie stock (which I have to scraps for but was looking to go the quick route) I just decided to find some organic chicken stock, and use water to make up the difference since the container was only for 4 cups of stock.

Put in your sachet and the 1 can of kidney beans. Now that everything (except the green beans) is in the pot, cover it and bring it to a boil on a medium heat (if you were doing 2 cans kidney beans you could add them both in). After about 10 minutes, remove the sachet. Now take a measuring cup and remove a cup full of the soup. Pull out your food processor and chop it up until you get puree, then add it back into the pot! Sounds kinda crazy but this actually adds substance to the soup by giving it a little thicker bite, and even in the end it’s still plenty “soupy”.

Now you are ready to add in your handful of green beans and about a cup or so of elbow macaroni (or whatever small pasta you prefer). Because the heat from the liquid will continue to cook the pasta figure out your instructions for cooking it al dente and shave off at least a minute. If the box says 6 mins al dente pasta, go for 5 minutes. This should be long enough to cook your pasta without over cooking it after it sits, and it avoids making your green beans mushy!

Now you can add in another tbsp EVOO, and season with black pepper to taste. Grab a bowl and a spoon, ladle some in, grab some crackers if you like, and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. YUM!