You may be thinking that Pasta Fagioli is an odd recipe to post on Labor Day. And you’re right, this soup does not scream Labor Day at all! Don’t worry, we’ll be having Southwest Burgers for dinner tonight. We spent the weekend in Orlando visiting my family and were planning to stay until this evening, but after hearing that some bad weather from Tropical Storm Lee was headed to Tallahassee today, we decided to come back a day early. So we made the 4-hour drive. Of course, when we got back into town, it was already pouring. But alas, we had no food in the house and made the dreaded trip to the grocery store. I hate going to the grocery store. I know, I know, how can a foodie hate going to the grocery store?! I just hate it, I wish I could just pay someone to go for me and could just have it all delivered to my house like a 95 year-old woman…So yeah, going to the store and in the pouring rain was the last thing I wanted to do last night! After having the discussion with the hubs about what to have for dinner, I decided it was definitely a soup kind of night.

Pasta Fagioli, or Pasta e Fagioli means pasta and beans in Italian. I have been eating this soup since I was a little girl and it’s one of my favorites! I’ve had a lot of different versions of Pasta Fagioli, some with meat, some spicy, but my favorite one is the recipe my Mom and Grandma use (duh!)! If you want to kick this up a notch, add some crushed red pepper!

Pasta Fagioli

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

– 1 cup diced celery

– 3/4 cup sliced, grated, or diced carrots

– 2 garlic cloves, minced

– 2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

– 1 can cannellini beans, drain half the liquid

– 4 14-ounce cans chicken broth

– 1 can petite-diced tomatoes

– 1/2-3/4 lb. ditalini pasta (depending on how much pasta you like in your soups!)

– salt and pepper to taste

– Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add garlic, celery, and carrots. Cook for approximately 3 minutes. Add diced tomatoes (including the liquid). Allow mixture to simmer and for tomato liquid to cook down a bit, approximately 3-4 minutes. Add broth and bring to a simmer, lower heat to low. Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. In a separate pot, cook pasta. Allow pasta to be slightly al dente as it will continue to cook more when added to soup.

3. Discard about half the liquid from the beans and then pour the remaining liquid and beans to soup. Add additional salt and pepper if needed. Add pasta to soup. Serve with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top!

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