Pasta e Fagioli
You’ll love this classic Italian soup recipe that’s ready and on the dinner table in a half hour! Hearty and filling, made with the best beans and pasta, this Pasta e Fagioli is just what you need during the chilly soup season.
It’s time to celebrate everything pasta! Why? Because today, October 25th, is World Pasta Day. I’ve got one yummy recipe to share with you today that I think you will love. My family gobbled it up in record time.
This recipe was inspired by the Barilla recipe and I made some tweaks based on what I had available and what we enjoyed.
Another cool thing about this recipe is that it’s all made in one pot. The pasta cooks right along with the beans and the rest of the ingredients. One of the benefits of using the same pot is that starches released from the pasta will make the recipe creamy.
We are all about belly-warming soups in our house, especially when we have so much cold weather. Another well-loved Italian soup is our homemade Minestrone Soup recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Soup Recipe
- This recipe makes 5 generous soup portions
- It’s easy to scale to make more servings or to make more to have leftovers
- It’s made with only pantry staple ingredients- nothing crazy needed
- Super quick dinner, no need to slave over the stove all day
- Perfect freezer meal soup to have on hand
Ingredients Needed
- Pasta
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Cloves garlic
- Small red onion
- Pancetta
- Kidney beans
- Tomato sauce
- Water
- Asiago cheese
- Salt and pepper
- Parsley
How to Make Pasta e Fagioli
- Step One: Add olive oil to a large pan on medium heat. Stir in garlic, red onion and pancetta and cook for about 5 minutes, until onion is softened.
- Step Two: Stir in kidney beans and tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Step Three: Add pasta and water to the pot and stir. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer an additional 10 to 12 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more water if you find it’s evaporating too quickly.
- Step Four: Remove from heat and stir in Asiago cheese. Let it sit to cool down. When ready to serve, top with more Asiago cheese and parsley, if desired.
Helpful Kitchen Equipment Needed
This post contains affiliate links.
What to Serve with Soup
Helpful Tips and Tricks
One thing I learned from making this traditional Italian soup is that you are not supposed to serve it piping hot. Let it cool to room temperature first so that the flavours have a chance to mingle and settle in before serving and enjoying.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
- I used Asiago cheese because our store was out of Parmigiano cheese. You can swap out the cheese that you use for garnishes, make a combo of cheese options, or even omit the cheese altogether.
- I chose to use Diatli for my soup pasta. However, you can use whatever shaped small pasta you prefer. You could even serve this with rice or orzo if you’re in a punch.
Leftover Storage
Any leftover soup should be transferred to an airtight container once it has cooled completely. The leftovers should be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
However, you should know that the pasta will start breaking down the longer it is in the soup. The faster you can enjoy leftovers, the less messy they’ll be.
Reheat leftover soup in a pot on the stove, or reheat single servings in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave.
Can I Freeze This?
Be very careful if you choose to freeze any leftover Pasta e Fagioli. Since we make the pasta in the soup as the whole thing cooks, it can make freezing it more difficult.
Similar to storing the pasta in the refrigerator, the pasta will start to break down and become mushy and messy over time. It also starts to change texture when it thaws and then really makes a mess or breaks up into chunks when you go to reheat it.
If you know you plan on making this soup to freeze it, I would suggest making the pasta separately to help avoid this problem, and then serve pasta on individual servings that you serve now and plan to make fresh pasta for later when you thaw and reheat the soup again.
What is Soffritto?
Soffritto is a cooking term to describe using a pan to heat the olive oil and then gently sautéing the garlic, red onion, and pancetta to not just cook them for the sauce, but to flavour the olive oil.
What is Pasta e Fagioli?
Pasta e Fagioli literally translates to Pasta with Beans. It can also be pronounced as Pasta Fasul or Pasta Fazool. It is just a hearty soup usually made with vegetables, beans, and pasta.
Did you know that this dish was actually made for the peasants and the lower class in Italy? They wanted to make a dish that was filling and used inexpensive ingredients that lower class peasants could enjoy.
Is Pasta Fagioli the same as Minestrone?
Pasta Fagioli and Minestrone are similar Italian soups. They’re both made with vegetables, typically the common ones that you have on hand, but the Fagioli soup also incorporates beans and pasta.
Minestrone is typically more of a brothy soup and doesn’t typically have pasta, although some recipes do add it to bulk it up and make it less broth based.
They are similar with basic ingredients, but the spices are slightly different as well.
More Soup Recipes
Get together with your friends and family and enjoy a delicious pasta dish today! Maybe try this recipe? If you do, I’d love to hear how it turned out. If you want more soup options, here you go:
- Tortellini Soup
- Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup
- Leftover Turkey Soup
- Tomato Florentine Soup
- Busy Day Soup
You might also like this 5 Soup Pasta or Tortellini Casserole.
Pasta e Fagioli
SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and we’ll send this recipe to your inbox.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Ditalini pasta uncooked
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small red onion diced
- ¾ cup pancetta cubed
- 2 cups kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup Asiago cheese shredded
- salt and pepper
- parsley for garnish, if desired
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large pan on medium heat. Stir in garlic, red onion and pancetta and cook for about 5 minutes, until onion is softened.
- Stir in kidney beans and tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add pasta and water to the pot and stir. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer an additional 10 to 12 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more water if you find it’s evaporating too quickly.
- Remove from heat and stir in Asiago cheese. Let it sit to cool down. When ready to serve, top with more Asiago cheese and parsley, if desired.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see it! Make sure to share it on your favorite social platform.
Want Even More Recipes?
Join Moms Best Recipes to find more delicious family recipes.
free ebook!
The Best of Simply Stacie
When you subscribe to the newsletter for the latest updates!
Thanks for the recipe i’m looking forward to trying this
What a great bowl of Pasta and so colorful! Hope you have a great week and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Miz Helen
Hi Stacie, Your pasta e fagioli is a little different that what I’ve had before but it looks and sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing your recipe! Blessings, Janet
Looks so good. Thanks for joining us at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Shared
Great recipe! Pinning for later!
This looks so delicious and great for the cold nights. Yummy!!
This sounds and looks so delicious!
I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
sounds perfect to make for cold fall nights!
This looks like a yummy new dish to try for my family!
I’ve just recently started making pasta dishes. I have an italian neighbor who is 85 and is teaching me how to make my own sauce. I think it would be amazing with your pasta recipes.
I love Pasta e Fagioli, it is such an easy soup to make and comes together quickly. I also add diced carrots to mine for a little extra flavor, but as a vegan I would leave out the pancetta. I also use one can of red kidney beans and one can of white beans to give it some extra flavor too. And this is definitely a soup where you want small pasta.
I have heard of Pasta e Fagioli, but I have never made it before. It looks delicious and easy to make. I want to make it real soon!
Looks so yummy
Now I am hungry. That looks so tasty!
This recipe looks delicious. I love Barilla products.
(Pasta e Fagioli) I have used Barilla pasta for many years now. I have made everything from lasagna to my homemade spaghetti with this product too. This is one recipe that I am going to keep in my recipe box for further making.