Bean, Tomato, and Pasta Soup (Pasta e Fagioli, sorta)

I am not Italian whatsoever, so I'm not going to name this Pasta e Fagioli. But after having read a half-dozen recipes for it, I came to the conclusion that this is another wonderful peasant-type soup where you make a hearty dish with what you have on hand. So, here's my version of it. Purists may seek elsewhere.

Also, it was really fun nipping out into the dark of my garden in late December to harvest fresh rosemary and thyme!!!

This could easily be made vegetarian.

extra virgin olive oil, about 2 Tb
1/2 onion, diced small (about 1/2 cup)
2 small ribs celery, diced small (about 1/4-1/2 cup)
2 small carrots, diced small (about 1/2 cup)
2 4" sprigs fresh rosemary
3-5 sprigs fresh thyme (grab at thyme in dark, get handful, rip!)
1 bay leaf
1 link kielbasa, halved longwise and sliced thinly
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes (preferably salt-free), NOT drained, smushed up
2 15.5-oz cans beans, rinsed and drained (I would have used cannelini, but what I had was red kidney...and some recipes I saw used those, too)
~ 1 cup defatted, jelled juices left over from making pork carnitas (oh, my Gosh :!: ) -- some concentrated stock would do well here as a sub. Or your favorite spice blend and some water.
4 cups water
1/2 box (1/2 lb) dried pasta, preferably Ditalini or Elbows, but what I had was Penne
Parmesan cheese, for the table

(Note: I used no additional salt or seasoning other than what's mentioned, as my carnitas juices were VERY strongly spiced and concentrated...I would have used stock but even that would have been too much, thus the water.)

Preheat a heavy stock pot or dutch oven to medium heat with the olive oil.

Saute the onion, carrot and pepper, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes until they get some color.

Add kielbasa, stir occasionally another 3-4 minutes until it gets some color.

Add the juices, tomatoes, beans and water. Stir together. Cover and simmer on low for at least 20 minutes.

Turn off heat for a moment, let it calm down, then fish out the rosemary and thyme stems. Make SURE you pull out the bay leaf (all parts of it) so no one chokes on it!!!

Turn heat back on to medium-low, add pasta, cook until pasta is done to taste, stirring occasionally. Add more liquid if desired. Adjust seasonings. Finishing with some grated parmesan and/or parsley would be nice, too.

My batch isn't done yet, but it's looking and tasting insanely good. Italians are such smart people! Enjoy!

Megan,

This looks Vegetarian "Outstanding!". I'm going to pass this by our Veggie daughter when she gets home (visiting fiance's family for Christmas, "Ugh, I'm learning to share our child at Holiday time") and due back home tomorrow.

If you don't mind, I /we would like to try this Veggie and post our changes.
OK?

Jane

Have you been looking in my refrigerator, Megan? How did you know I just happened to have about a cup of jellied, defatted pork stock left over from making PNG's tamales?

I was looking at it yesterday wondering what to do with it. This will be bubbling for tonight's supper.

Thanks a bunch for sharing.

janefss2002 wrote:This looks Vegetarian "Outstanding!". I'm going to pass this by our Veggie daughter when she gets home (visiting fiance's family for Christmas, "Ugh, I'm learning to share our child at Holiday time") and due back home tomorrow.

If you don't mind, I /we would like to try this Veggie and post our changes. OK?

By all means, please do, Jane! Here is a link to one of the vegetarian versions of pasta e fagioli I was reading. It includes garlic; a lot of them did. I left it out of mine (even though I am crazy about garlic) because there were so many flavors already in that pork stock.

http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/01/22/food-for-thought-pasta-e-fagioli-and-wish-flowers/

And, Ander.... doodeedoodooodoodeedoo! (Twilight Zone Theme)

Hope you both enjoy!!!

For your seasonings, y'all -- take a piece of kitchen twine and tie your bay leaves together with whatever other fresh herbs you're using (always seems to be thyme in my kitchen) -- leave a LONG tail on one end of the knot.

Now drop the bundle of herbs into the pot, and tie the other end of the string loosely around the handle of your stew pot (doesn't even have to be a knot -- you're just looking to keep it out of the soup).

Then when the soup is done, just clip or untie the string from around the pot handle, pull out the herbs, and throw 'em away (remember, if they've been swimming in animal-based stock, they've got animal fat all over them...so not so great for your compost heap).

Good reminder about not composting the herbs, LaFee, thanks. I almost made a bouquet garni with some cheesecloth, but unrolling my bolt of cheesecloth and tying it up sounded like more work than fishing out a few stems.

Here are some pictures from last night. First one is a little fuzzy, sorry; may be how hot it was.

Hubby made this last night while I took down the Christmas tree.

We had no kielbasa but we had some spicy pork left from tamale filling so we added that. We used elbow macaroni, and my thyme died in my herb garden so I used a sparing amount of German biergarten sage along with the rosemary and bay leaf. We had more broth than I thought so ours was soupier, but it was delicious. We'll have some great leftovers for the next couple of days, and I'll eventually serve the last of it over brown rice, topped with cheese.

Thanks, Megan!

Sounds great, Ander!! Glad you enjoyed it.

I ended up using more than half a box of penne (what can I say, I'm greedy!) and it plumped up a lot in the liquid; I think that may have made the difference. I am definitely going to make this again. Tasty, inexpensive, and fast. I likey!

Megan,

I made this for the family New Year's Eve with vegetarian adaptions. It was outstanding!

My changes were:
Instead of "1 cup defatted, jelled juices left over from making pork carnitas" I used 1 cup of Vegetarian "Beef" stock (1 tsp of Vegetarian Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base in 1 cup of hot water and 4 drops of Hickory Liquid Smoke).

Instead of kielbasa link I used a Vegan Italian "Sausage" Vegan from Field Roast, sliced.

I also used 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes by mistake than the whole ones mushed (you know, bottom of the grocery rack, holiday time, stuff is rearranged, etc )

I also used penne pasta, but used a whole box of whole wheat penne.

We all agreed the dish did not need the Vegan "Sausage" and could use another can of beans.

I made the mistake of taking my pictures with my phone camera and cannot get transferred . I'll keep trying.

We served this with grilled cheese sandwiches made with Multi-grain Rye bread from local baker and white cheddar cheese.

Again, outstanding!

Jane

Hi Jane!

janefss2002 wrote:
I made this for the family New Year's Eve with vegetarian adaptions. It was outstanding!

Yay!!!

My changes were:
Instead of "1 cup defatted, jelled juices left over from making pork carnitas" I used 1 cup of Vegetarian "Beef" stock (1 tsp of Vegetarian Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base in 1 cup of hot water and 4 drops of Hickory Liquid Smoke).

I used the juice because I had it and needed to use it up.... but any decent base would do. And I am totally with you on the liquid smoke... it is one of my secret weapons. (In fact, I think there was smoke involved in the original carnitas project.) It's amazing how many veggie things (or low meat quantity) I can get hubby to eat if there is liquid smoke involved!

Crushed vs. whole tomatoes, I really don't think it matters. I try to go for less processed if I get the opportunity, but I think crushed diced or whole it would all be good. I didn't get to put up any tomatoes this year so I just try to find least-salt/least-costly at the supermarket. The texture changes of course but we are not terribly picky.

I added the meat simply because of hubby and because I had way too much kielbasa on hand... Leaving it (or meat sub) out and adding more beans sounds perfect.

Again, SO glad it worked out well for you!

Megan,

So agree about the liquid smoke! Vegetarian daughter says it is a staple in her cupboard.

The crushed tomatoes thickened this dish so much that it made this dish look like a ragout. That's why I want to post my lost pictures. Will do so when IT (hubby) gets "a round to-it" fixing my phone photo output (long story, phone got broken, replaced at Christmas, not quite right yet). Sigh.

I love the way your dish looked. Mine is so much thicker.

Now, the kicker here is, daughter's fiance does not like "soup". He cleaned his bowl and said it was great! He knows by now he doesn't have to please me (I added grilled cheese sandwiches, just in case to supplement if he didn't want soup and picked at it). Didn't really "need" them, but they added to the homey-ness of this dish.

This one is now in the files!
jane