A very unauthentic, but seriously delicious Pasta e Fagioli

I love soup. When made well, it’s probably just about as perfect of a food as you can get. There may be a couple of meals out there that I like more, but nothing that I could eat every day for a week and not either get sick of or feel guilty about eating.

This recipe for pasta e fagioli may be a little bit on the bootlegged side of things, but it is chock full of both pasta, and fagioli (that’s beans, people), so as far as I’m concerned, it’s as authentic as it needs to be. Because deliciousness and ease of preparation beat out authenticity in my book any day of the week.

It’s also easy to customize to your liking, and I’ll add a couple of variations at the end of the recipe. Because if you haven’t yet noticed my low-carb phobia, you’ll see that this recipe contains both pasta and potatoes.

Pasta e Fagioli
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Ingredients:

1 onion peeled and quartered
2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and in large chunks
1 15oz can chopped tomatoes
olive oil
salt to taste
2 bell peppers (a combo of red and green is pretty) diced
1 – 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced green beans
1/4 – 1/3 lb small pasta, I used short tri-color penne
2 15 oz cans beans, drained or not – I used kidney and cannellini

In a large pot add the potatoes, onion and half the tomatoes with their juice and cover with water, about three quarts to start with. You can always add more water later, but if you add too much, there’s not a lot you can do about it.

Bring to a boil, add about 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 tsp of salt to start and cook until the potatoes and onions are soft. Puree with an immersion blender or use a regular blender and add back to the pot.

Bring to a boil again and add the rest of the tomatoes, peppers and green beans and simmer for five minutes. Add the pasta and simmer until it’s done the way you like it, then add the beans just to heat through. Don’t forget to check for salt before you sit down to eat!

(Slightly) lower carb version: use an equal amount of zucchini or yellow squash instead of potatoes.

If you want thinner broth and more “chunks” (as well as a shorter cooking time), leave out the potatoes, dice the onion, and add it with the tomatoes, peppers and green beans.

If I were like Debbie and kept all sorts of nice fresh herbs around, I might’ve stirred in some chopped fresh basil and parsley to this at the end. Things like crushed red pepper and grated parmesean cheese were passed around at the table, and my four year old daughter ate an astoundingly large bowl full. If that’s not the ultimate taste test, I don’t know what is.