Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Pasta e Fagioli

I love the soup, salad and bread sticks at Olive Garden. I ALWAYS get the Pasta e Fagioli (basically Italian chili). So when I found this knock-off recipe that could be cooked in a crock pot, I knew I had hit the jackpot! This makes a TON of soup! But we like leftovers at our house, so that's a good thing. This recipe comes from food.com via google.
(photo courtesy of bakeddelish.blogspot.com via google images)

Pasta e Fagioli

  • 2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained (I only used 1 lb.)

  • onion, chopped

  • 3 carrots, chopped

  • 4 stalks celery, chopped

  • 2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained

  • 1 (16 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

  • 1 (16 ounce) can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I used another can of red kidney beans, or you can use cannolini beans)

  • 3 (10 ounce) cans beef stock

  • 3 teaspoons oregano

  • 2 teaspoons pepper

  • 5 teaspoons parsley (I left it out since I didn't have any)

  • 1 teaspoon Tobasco (optional)

  • 1 (20 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce

  • 8 ounces pasta (any small pasta, I used a mini shell)

  • Dump everything EXCEPT pasta in a large crock pot and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. (I prepped everything the night before and cooked on high first thing in the morning so I could serve it for lunch.) Add the pasta the last 3o minutes on high and 1 hour on low.

    4 comments:

    Heather said...

    I remember having this at your house a few months ago - so yummy!!!

    Grandma Honey said...

    So do you really put the whole teaspoon of Tabasco in it? Is it hot?

    Grandma Honey said...

    Oh one more question....do you mean 2 cans to equal 28 oz of tomatoes? Or do you mean 2-28 oz cans of tomatoes?

    Julie said...

    Jill, I did put all the Tobasco. It is a giant pot of soup. It was a little spicy but just with a bit of a kick. If you're worried about it, you can always cut it in half or omit it completely. As for the tomatoes, I double checked and it is 2 of the large 28 oz cans, but I'm pretty sure I used 4 normal sized cans instead. I hope that helps!