A really good hardy soup that is a copycat of Olive Gardens Pasta E Fagioli. Now you can make this gem at home.
My son was home for the holidays and discussion turned to recipes, and this is one of his favorites. I was in a soup mood and need of leftovers. In spite of this not being very “cooking for two” friendly, we finished every last drop without freezing.
So the inspired by goes to a Food.com recipe. Only a few minor changes.
Rating
An excellent soup as expected. This would be a great company recipe to cook ahead.
Notes: The original recipe calls for the beans to be put in with their packing liquid. This does increase the sodium some (and I had caught heat on this before) so I did rinse the beans and then added a can of beef broth to replace the liquids.
This is a thick soup as written. I liked it better with another can of broth.
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Getting your act together.
Start with browning 1 pound of ground beef in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. I used the Dutch oven. Drain excess fat.
While the meat in browning, dice one medium onion, and chop three stalks celery. Juline one large or 2 medium carrots. Mince 2 cloves garlic.
Add the prepared veggies to the browned meat. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add 2 – 14 1/2 oz cans diced tomatoes, 15 oz can tomato sauce, 12oz of V8 vegetable juice, 1 t vinegar, 1 1/2 t salt, 1 t oregano, 1 t basil, 1/2 t pepper and 1/2 t thyme. Add 1 can each red kidney and great northern beans. I rinsed the beans and added a can of beef broth. Add the second can of broth of you want a little more of a soup texture (which is what I remember the original like).
Simmer for 1 hour then add 1/2 pound of pasta cooked al dente.
Simmer ten more minutes and serve.
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Copycat Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lbs ground beef
- 1 onion - medium diced
- 3 stalks celery - chopped
- 1 carrot - large or 2 medium julinied
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 28 oz diced tomatoes
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 12 oz V8 vegetable juice
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 14 red kidney beans - drained
- 14 Great Northern beans - drained
- 14-28 oz beef broth
- 1/2 pound pasta al dente
Instructions
- Start with browning 1 pound of ground beef in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. I used the Dutch oven. Drain excess fat.
- While the meat in browning, dice one medium onion, and chop three stalks celery. Juline one large or 2 medium carrots. Mince 2 cloves garlic.
- Add the prepared veggies to the browned meat. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
- Add 2 – 14 1/2 oz cans diced tomatoes, 15 oz can tomato sauce, 12oz of V8 vegetable juice, 1 t vinegar, 1 1/2 t salt, 1 t oregano, 1 t basil, 1/2 t pepper and 1/2 t thyme.
- Add 1 can each red kidney and great northern beans. I rinsed the beans and added a can of beef broth. Add the second can of broth of you want a little more of a soup texture (which is what I remember the original like).
- Simmer for 1 hour then add 1/2 pound of pasta cooked al dente. Simmer ten more minutes and serve.
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Nutrition is generally for one serving. Number of servings is stated above and is my estimate of normal serving size for this recipe.
All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
Alicia Bland
Looking forward to trying this and noticed that pepper and thyme are not on ingredient list.Made the broccoli cheese one last night-delicious and a big hit with my kids! Thanks!
DrDan
Hi Alicia,
Thanks for the proof-read. This recipe in is need of a buff-up of text and pictures and is on the list. I have put them in the ingredient list. As you know, they were in the instructions at least.
Thanks again for the note.
Dan
Michael@Banquetssandiego
This was outstanding… Loved it. My family wanted the recipe.
Dr Dan
I think I will rinse beans from a can more than from a jar. I don’t know why. It does decrease the sodium some but not that much. I’m going to try to plan my cooking more and I want to do some dried beans soon.
The soup was excellent but I will try to do half a batch or immediately freeze some if I do it again. It made a massive amount.
Chris
That is one of the girls’ at Alexis’ work favorites. I made a version for them last year and they went nuts over it.
I sometimes rinse beans, sometimes don’t, depending on the bean and use. But it’s probably a good practice to follow.
Steve Roth
When I look at the gunk in the bottom of a can of soup beans that stuff makes me cringe. It also seems to have a peculiar odor (tin?) that I don’t want reflected in my soup. Beans in a jar also appear cloudy. So, it is a matter of policy for me to drain, rinse, and drain. Repeat again, if need be.
In any case, I will be making this soup in the very near future.
Thank you.