This delicious Pasta e Fagioli Soup is an Olive Garden copycat that you can easily make at home on the stovetop or in your crock pot—loaded with beef, pasta, vegetables, and beans simmered in a rich, spicy tomato broth. It will become your new family dinner favorite.
Introduction
Pasta e Fagioli means "pasta and beans" and is a traditional Italian peasant soup. If you think of this soup as thick Italian Minestrone Soup with meat, beans, and pasta, you will be reasonably close.
The most well-known version is from Olive Garden restaurants. You can do this easy copycat version at home with excellent results. The "inspired by" goes to a Food.com recipe Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli with a few changes but expanded options to make it your own.
We were in a soup mood and needed leftovers. Despite this not being very "cooking for two" friendly, we finished every last drop without freezing.
My Ratingbu
An excellent soup, as expected, a very high 4 or low 5. A perfect company recipe to cook ahead.
📋Ingredients
Meat
While you can easily make a great vegetarian Pasta e Fagioli Soup without ground meat, most variations will use ground beef.
This recipe is also great with Italian sausage, ground chicken, or ground turkey.
Ground meat needs to be browned to not clump as the soup cooks.
Beans
The old Italian recipes use Cannellini beans. But the Olive Garden version is made with white-like Great Northern or Navy and red kidney beans. It’s a matter of your personal preference.
There is no provision for cooking the beans during this recipe, so use pre-cooked or canned.
The model recipe uses undrained canned beans. The packing fluid of canned beans is relatively high in sodium—there is no good reason to add that. I suggest draining it and replacing the fluid with low sodium beef broth. I have added one 14 ounce can, which is a bit more than needed to replace the drained liquid.
Seasoning
You can use 1 tablespoon of Italian season to replace the basil, oregano, and thyme.
Fresh herbs will add more flavor if you have them.
Pasta
The pasta should be short and generally have ridges of some type. A ditalini pasta which is short tubes with ridges is classic. Use what you have, but it should be small.
The pasta should be cooked al denta and added at the end of cooking. This soup does not have a lot of free fluid, and adding uncooked pasta will be unpredictable.
Pasta in a leftover soup can absorb fluid when stored. So if storing, try to reserve the soup you will be keeping and not add pasta.
👨🍳How to Make Pasta e Fagioli Soup in a Crock Pot
If you want to make a crock pot version of this soup, use a 5-quart or larger slow cooker.
- Brown the ground meat in a skillet, adding the onion and garlic for the last couple of minutes of cooking.
- Add everything but the pasta to the crock pot.
- Cook on low for about 6 hours (about 3 hours on high) until the vegetables are tender. It does not usually need longer since the components are cut small and the meat already cooked.
- Cook the pasta al denta and add the last 15-30 minutes of cooking.
❓FAQs
Yes, this makes a great gluten-free soup just by your choice of pasta. Since it is cooked and added at the end of cooking, any gluten-free or alternative pasta is a wonderful choice.
The pasta will absorb fluid from the soup during storage, and it will somewhat change the pasta texture and thicken the soup.
It is preferred to store the soup without pasta, but sometimes it just doesn't work out, and you will need to add a bit of water or broth when reheating.
Top your soup with a bit of fresh parsley and parmesan cheese. Crusty bread or breadsticks with a side salad will round out a perfect meal.
❄️Storage
In the refrigerator, sealed airtight and store for up to 4 days. To freeze, sealed airtight in the freezer for 3-4 months.
Reheating
I always prefer reheating on the stovetop over medium heat, but a microwave will work. Add a bit of broth or water to adjust thickness, especially if stored with pasta in the soup.
📖Italian Recipes
Boursin Cheese Sauce with Chicken and Pasta
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
The ingredients for this soup but pasta and the broth are not pictured.
In a large pot like a Dutch oven, brown 1 pound of ground beef over medium-high heat. Drain excess fat.
While the meat is browning, dice one medium onion and chop three stalks of celery. Juline one large or 2 medium carrots. Mince 2 cloves of garlic.
Add the prepared veggies to the browned meat—cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Rinse one can each of red kidney and great northern beans.
Stir in two 14 ½ oz cans of diced tomatoes, 15 oz can tomato sauce, 12oz of tomato or V8 vegetable juice, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon basil, ½ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon thyme. Add the rinsed beans and added a can of beef broth. Add the second can of broth if you want a little more of a soup texture. Simmer for 1 hour.
Cook ½ pound of pasta al dente. After the soup has simmered for one hour, add the al dente pasta a simmer another 10 minutes before serving.
📖Recipe
Pasta e Fagioli Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)
Ingredients
- 1 lbs ground beef
- 1 onion - medium diced
- 3 stalks celery - chopped
- 1 carrot - large or 2 medium julienned
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 28 oz diced tomatoes
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 12 oz tomato juice - or V8 vegetable juice
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 14 light or dark red kidney beans - Low sodium, rinsed
- 14 Great Northern or Navy beans - Low sodium, rinsed
- 14-28 oz beef broth - Low sodium
- ½ pound pasta al dente - smaller pasta
Instructions
- In a large pot like a Dutch oven, brown 1 pound of ground beef over medium-high heat. Drain excess fat.
- While the meat is browning, dice one medium onion and chop three stalks of 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.
- Rinse one can each of red kidney and great northern beans.
- Stir in two 14 ½ oz cans of diced tomatoes, 15 oz can tomato sauce, 12oz of tomato or V8 vegetable juice, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon basil, ½ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon thyme. Add the rinsed beans and added a can of beef broth. Add the second can of broth if you want a little more of a soup texture.
- Cook ½ pound smaller ridged pasta al dente. After the soup has simmered for one hour, add the al dente pasta.
- Simmer another 10 minutes before serving.
My Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- You can use Italian Seasoning (1 tablespoon) to replace the herbs in this recipe.
- Like all soups, you can vary the veggies and spices to your taste.
- This is a thick soup as written. I liked it better with the second can of broth.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for 3-4 months.
- Try to store without pasta, but if you do, you will need to add some fluid on reheat.
- Make this gluten-free by using gluten-free pasta.
To make in a crock pot:
If you want to make a crock pot version of this soup, use a 5-quart or larger slow cooker.- Brown the ground meat in a skillet, adding the onion and garlic for the last couple of minutes of cooking.
- Add everything but the pasta to the crock pot.
- Cook on low for about 6 hours (about 3 hours on high) until the vegetables are tender. It does not usually need longer since the components are cut small and the meat already cooked.
- Cook the pasta al dente and add the last 30 minutes.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally Published January 5, 2013. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Brian Mooney FRMS
Let me comment as a recently-retired university life sciences/chemistry professor who taught for years at several institutions with well-known culinary programs.
Rinsing the beans gets rid of a large proportion of oligosaccharides, a sugar which is readily fermented by the bacteria residing in the colon (large bowel). One fermentation product is gas.
All childhood jokes about “musical fruit” aside, this gas is more than a polite social concern. Many people find the gassiness produces an uncomfortable, even painful distention of the bowel. Draining and rinsing the beans may do little to reduce sodium (just use “no salt added” beans) but oligosaccharides are readily water-soluble and thus can be rinsed away to a good degree. Simply place the beans in a bowl or colander and rinse under running cool tap water until all the canned bean liquid is gone. (Soaking for an additional short while in cool water will likely remove even more of the offending sugar.). The gassiness problem is now largely solved.
If you are still bothered by gassiness, then “Beano” and similar enzyme-based products will likely be the best answer in addition to rinsing.
Yet another lovely recipe in this amazing collection of wonderful recipes.
Brian
Efghi's mommy
Happy holidays! This year has been all about food. Food for ME...and food for the fridge...I detest cooking and I don't like combining money with food. I've been through many "cheatsheets to success" for food ideas and finally have settled down with 1.)101 cooking for two 2.) Food Network website and app..for all of my adventures in the kitchen. Then...I decided I ate everything good! And wanted a baby! Then! I realized it's not time for baby. Hope you get the message ❤😚😙💭😍🍾🍾🍾
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.