Hang on people. If you are looking for a freakin’ fantastic recipe for a busy weeknight {or lazy weekend} this recipe for Pasta E Fagioli is the one. Now I have not been to The Olive Garden in like 10 years, but I do remember how good their soup and bread sticks are.
Not only is this recipe awesome, but it makes a lot of soup. 2 dinners and 2 lunches for our family of four to be exact. So if you don’t want all that soup, then simply cut the recipe in half.
Go make this! Seriously. The come back and tell me how good it was.
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 cups dehydrated carrots or 2 large carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
{4} 14 oz cans diced tomatoes {do not drain}
{1} 16 oz can red kidney beans, drained
{1} 16 oz can white navy beans, drained
{2} 32 oz cartons of beef stock
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 24 oz jar spaghetti sauce
8 ounces small pasta {I used mini bow tie}
Directions
Brown the beef in a skillet, drain fat, and transfer to a large crock pot. Place all the ingredients {except the pasta} in the crock pot and turn it on {High 5 hours, Low 8 hours}.
30 minutes before serving, stir in the pasta place the lid back on the crock pot.
Once pasta is done cooking, ladle in to bowls and serve. YUMMALICIOUS!
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Heidi says
Sounds delish! Can’t wait to whip up a batch. I made your chicken tortilla soup today for dinner and it was fabulous. Sundays are our crockpot soup night. I’m thinking about adding one more crockpot night per week to my meal rotation. Whomever created the crockpot was a genius.
Cathy says
About to enjoy this soup with the fam! Can’t wait. I have a loaf of bread in the oven (almost ready) to dip into the soup. Thanks! 🙂
Cathy says
OK, so the whole “2 tsp pepper” made for quite the spicy dish (I used black pepper…was that correct?). Yummy, but spicy. I’ll reduce to 1 tsp next time I make it.
Paty says
I just poured all the contents in my crock pot and I have one of the big crock pots and I’m afraid to pour the 2nd carton of stock because it’s already filled :0 to the top.
I will fill it to rim and see what happens. Thanks for such a yummy recipie 🙂
Lisa says
What size crockpot are you using? Everything doesn’t fit in mine and I thought I had the largest size.
Yummalicious says
Was super yummy. But two things:
1) Must cook the pasta before adding it to the soup. Because it will suck up all the good liquid (aaaarrggh!!!) aaand the pasta becomes mush when left in too long before eating. =P bleh.
2) Run out of spaghetti sauce? V-8 Juice to the rescue!! V-8 Juice added a depth of flavor, a tomatoey undertone, and brightness. I thought it was the missing ingredient as it added so much flavor.
Cooked pasta just before you put soup in bowls (Just like the Olive Garden).
Add V-8 Juice to the ingredients list.
Yummalicious says
PS It sounds like in Point 2) that I only used V-8 Juice. I added everything per recipe and felt like I needed more liquid soupy-ish-ness and so added the only thing I had available… V-8 Juice. Serendipity.
NCJill says
Making this for the second time in two weeks. Yummy! I think I ate on the soup all week long savoring each and every drop. I made the pasta separate and just added it in when I reheated a bowl of soup. Worked great. Thanks for recipe, Mavis.
NCJill says
PS Thank you for posting your blog at night. I look forward to it each night after I have mostly forgotten what the other “morning” blogs have said. 🙂