Pasta e Fagiole Soup

If you have an Olive Garden in your area, you'll know this soup.  They serve a Pasta e Fagiole (pronounced pasta fashule) soup that is, in my opinion, delicious.  Rich, hearty, and full of goodness. 

We had a cold week last week and I decided on Wednesday night, a soup was in order. So I googled "Olive Garden" and "pasta e fagiole soup recipe" and came up with this.  I modified it slightly - shocking I know, but it was delicious as were the left over I had.

Pasta E Fagiole

Serves 8 - but soups are very versatile in how many they serve

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 c diced onion
• 1 c julienned carrot
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans (with liquid)
• 1 (15 ounce) can great northern beans (with liquid)
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (12 ounce) can v-8 vegetable juice
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 lb ditali pasta

Brown beef in a large stock pot over medium heat-drain off fat. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour. After 50 minutes boil pasta to al dente. Drain well. Add pasta to the large pot of soup and simmer for 10 minutes.

So my slight modification is I didn't bother boiling the pasta in another pot, I just tossed it in about 10 minutes before I was ready to eat. The broth of the soup cooked it just fine.  I also rinsed my beans to remove some of the starchy liquid from them. I didn't add the liquid into the broth for that reason. I just substituted with chicken broth or water. I also added a dash of hot sauce.