You guys! I’m back with another one of my favorite soups. A hearty and healthy pasta e fagioli soup that’s loaded with good for your veggies like carrots, and tomatoes, and celery, and my personal favorite – garlic. But then there’s also teeny tiny, itty bitty wittle ditalini pasta along with protein packed kidney and cannellini beans. It’s not really a secret that a) I absolutely adore soup, b) I’ve only posted a million other soup recipes on the blog. Psst, this one here is a serious winner! So today we’re making an Italian soup that takes just 30 minutes from start to finish including prep time and cooking time. Don’t you just love meals that are weeknight friendly like that? So something really really great happened yesterday. The hubby and I are moving into a 2 bedroom! Yippee! Which means now I get to have a whole fancy office dedicated to just the blog. But i’m jumping ahead of myself. It almost didn’t happen. That’s right, the apartment that we had our eyes set on literally got rented out 24 hours before we turned in our paperwork. Can you believe it? Oy vey! Coincidentally our neighbors, who also happen to be our closest friends, were looking into moving into a 2 bedroom around the same time. We were in the leasing office turning in our paperwork together and when she found out that the apartment I had my hopes set on was gone, she immediately offered up her apartment. Oh.my.God. Who does that? Seriously, who does that? I wanted to have an east facing window so that the natural light flowed freely in the early hours so that I could get that early morning light in my pictures and the only other east facing apartment was the one that Fariha and her husband were renting out. Naturally I said no about a million times, I know how similar we are and if I really wanted it, she did too. I can’t say enough about this girl. She’s one of a kind! She took a courtyard view on the second floor and so we’ll still be the upstairs neighbors. I owe her big time. So she and I are both sick. And guess what’s been nursing us back to health? This thick and hearty pasta e fagioli soup. Oh and of course mugs of lemon ginger tea with honey. Let’s jump right into this recipe. First thing first, the meat. You have 2 options here 1.) lean ground meat, i’d recommend a 90/10 and 2.) Italian sausage with the casing removed. Either option will be fine. Use what you’ve got on hand. Start by browning the meat, Let it cook up with just a tablespoon of olive oil. You’re going to add in the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic next. Let it sweat for a few minutes. Then, add in the rest of your ingredients, except the basil, ditalini pasta, and the beans. Let it all simmer and make the house smell delicious for 15 minutes before you add in the remaining ingredients. Serve it immediately if you’d added in the ditalini, otherwise the pasta tends to get greedy and soaks up all the soup liquid. You can make this soup vegan by using ‘ground crumbles’ in place of the ground beef and the chicken broth can easily be replaced with vegetable broth. Warm, thick and hearty pasta e fagioli soup with chunks of fire roasted tomatoes, parmesan cheese, pasta, and power packed beans. This is the kind of soup I crave when i’m sick. Because, I can’t really taste anything that’s not exploding with flavor. That’s why a pasta e fagioli soup is where it’s at, yo. It’s loaded with lots of italian flavors like oregano and basil and a hint of spice from the red pepper flakes which really help because it’s about the only taste I can make out when I have a cold. This soup really does nurse you back to health and it’s only the perfect meal to enjoy under a warm blankey with a good movie or just a Gilmore Girls marathon.
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If you like this recipe, you’ll also like:
Chicken Enchilada Soup (Slow Cooker)
Vegan ‘crumbles’ can be used in place of the meat if you’d like to make this recipe vegan friendly. Also, replace the chicken broth with vegetable stock.If you don’t plan on serving the soup immediately, don’t add the basil and the pasta. Reheat or warm the soup, add basil and pasta just before serving.
Chicken Noodle Soup {Slow Cooker} Homemade Minstrone Soup {Slow Cooker} Jalapeno Lime Chicken Soup {Slow Cooker}
