Pasta E Fagioli

By á-25063

It's amazing how many lousy clone recipes for this delicious chili-like soup are floating around the Internet. Cooking message boards, and questionable sites that claim to have "actual restaurant recipes" have for years passed off numerous versions only to have disappointed home chefs waste ingredients. What's puzzling is they leave out major ingredients that you can clearly see in the real thing, like the carrots, or ground beef, or two kinds of beans. Others don't even get the pasta right --- its obviously ditali pasta which are short little tubes. So, if you want the recipe of Olive Garden's famous Pasta e Fagioli at home, this may be the only recipe out there that will live up to a side-by-side taste test. Beware of imitation imitations!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced (1 cup)
• 1 large carrot, julienned (1 cup)
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped (1 cup)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes
• 1 15 oz. can red kidney beans (with liquid)
• 1 15 oz. can Great Northern beans (with liquid)
• 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 12 oz. can V8 juice
• 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 //2 pound (1/2 pkg) ditali pasta

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 60mins

Preparation

Step 1

Brown the ground beef in a large saucepan or pot over med. heat. Drain off most of the fat.
Add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and saute for 10 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for about 1 hour.
About 50 minutes into the simmering, cook the pasta in 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of boiling water over high heat. Cook for 10 minutes or just until pasta is al dente or slightly tough. Drain.
Add the pasta to the large pot of soup. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more and serve.