PASTA FAGIOLI with a Twist

Pasta Fagioli (aka pasta fazool) is a classic dinner soup in Italian homes. Like so many other Mediterranean meals, it is full of very economical, basic ingredients. For just a few dollars, you can feed a crowd. Of course, each region of the globe has it’s own version of classic, healthy, economical recipes, passed down through generations, based on ingredients locally available and affordable. Today, in much of the world, ingredients from afar are readily available, opening all our generational “hand me down” family recipes, to new possibilities. You may know from other posts, that Ricky’s mother, Tess is who inspired us to see our kitchens’ as a place where good food comes from. She was the epitome of old school Italian, in what she cooked and who she was. She was quite a fascinating individual. Certainly nothing like the very reserved family I was raised in. I walked into the lives of the Brangiforte family in my early teens. I will never forget meeting Tess for the first time. Her personality captured me. I became a fixture in their household, unable to get my fill of Tess, or her food. Ricky’s father, Sal who could be a bit gruff, used to tease me (or at least I chose to believe he was teasing me) “Are you here again. I know you have a home, why aren’t you ever there?”. He knew I had a good home, because Ricky’s parents and mine were friends. It was a wonder to me how that friendship took off, because my parents and Ricky’s parents, were very different in many ways. But one thing they had in common was love of family, and since Ricky, his sister Maureen and I were besties, that gave them a reason to be accepting, and often appreciative of their differences. My mother, who had very little culinary skill passed down to her, loved Tess’s cooking as much as I did. Her favorite of Tess’s recipes was pasta fagioli. She never mastered making the recipe herself, but ordered it any time it was on a menu, always remembering Tess when she did.

Getting back to the idea of classic recipes being updated to incorporate new ingredients, Ricky has adapted many of his mother’s traditional recipes. The most practical of the reasons he has done so, is time. Tess cooked all day, most every day. Ricky on the other hand, who is the dinner cook in his family, doesn’t have all day. He works and has the hectic schedule that so many of us have. I think most of us home dinner cooks have had to update a time honored classic recipe to meet current circumstances, and/or the food preferences of others. Ricky describes the “swaps” he has made in this recipe, as Americanizing it. He credits this adaptation to the taste preferences of his in-laws. Instead of making a soup broth from a ham bone, as was customary in his family, he uses pepperoni and kielbasa instead, giving it an entirely different flavor. I like this version better than the original. 😋

Pasta fagioli translates to pasta and beans. In this case, dried beans. Ricky uses navy beans, but there are so many other types of dried beans that are great in this recipe. If you have a favorite kind, use it. Making a soup using dried beans of any sort, is not a quick cooking dinner recipe. But with that said, it is very quick and easy to prepare, and from that point on, the stovetop is doing all the work. This dinner recipe takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to cook, but for me, that is not a bad thing. I love the smell of good food cooking on the stove or in the oven, especially on a cold winter afternoon, so making a soup using dried beans fits that bill.

Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:

NOTE: Before using dried beans, sift through them with you fingers or spread them out on a plate. It is common to have small pieces of hard shell or another foreign scrap in the beans, that you do not want swallowed with your soup. I give my beans the once over as I am running them under water in a colander.

This is WHAT TO DO:

This batch of pasta fagioli was made with my homegrown basil. I crumbled the leaves pretty well, as you can see in the ingredients shot, but they swell up a lot more than bottled basil does. If you look closely at some of the pictures, you can tell the basil is a leave that has been broken up. It’s much more prominent in a dish than the spec you see in your recipe when using bottled herbs. The smell and flavor is incredible. You can read all about my herb gardening in our CLAUDIA’S COOKING TIPS section. There is nothing fancy, complicated or expensive about growing herbs. Anyone can do it. My herb garden section is becoming a ongoing story. I can’t help myself! I really enjoy growing, and using my herbs. It is neat to have them fresh for the picking when I am making a recipe or salad during the growing season, and I love using my dried homegrown herbs well into the winter when my herb plants are sleeping. I started writing about growing herbs with the Cooking with Herb post, and went on to Back Porch Herb Garden and Bottle the Bounty. So far, that is, I have already taken so many pictures to share since those posts. 🤗 I highly recommend growing your favorite herbs. It is very rewarding.

Cover the pot and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours. Check to see if the beans are tender yet. When they are, that is when the soup is done. If you are using a bean other than navy beans, they may take longer. Check on the bag that the dried beans are packaged in. That will let you know how long it will take for that type of bean to get tender.

When the beans are tender, take the soup from the heat and cook the pasta. Drain the pasta and add it to the soup.