Pasta Fagioli Soup

 "When the stars make you drool, just-a like pasta fazool, that's amore". - Dean Martin

 It is officially getting chilly outside. Grab your coat, don't forget your hat, and lets get cooking.

One of the best ways to warm up is with a great big bowl of soup and a hunk of bread to dunk through thoroughly. Pasta Fagioli is an Italian-American classic that we see in countless restaurants and family recipe books. It looks like it takes hours to make, but honestly...you can make this dish very quickly and fool your entire family into thinking you were slaving over a hot stove. With the help of one of my girlfriends who also loves to cook, we tweaked this recipe that was similar to Olive Garden's Pasta Fagioli, and made it into something much more fresh and inviting. Experimentation works!

Rich and bubbling with flavor, this soup will warm you to the very core. It has sausage and bacon for the meat-lovers, fresh herbs and tomatoes for the naturalists and pasta because let's face it...everyone loves pasta. Pasta Fagioli is a peasant dish. By this, I mean that peasants who didn't have access to the most expensive cuts of meats and ingredients would make large vats of hot concoctions to keep their family's warm throughout the cold months. Is it just me, or does peasant food seem to be the best kind of food? Combined together into a over-sized stock pot, your friends and family will slurp this soup down to the last drop. I call this the perfect cure for a hard days work.

Ingredients:

1 pound mild or spicy Italian sausage (remove casings)
1 1/2 cups macaroni pasta
1 sweet onion, chopped fine
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped fine
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
1 Tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup bacon (either bag of real bacon bits or freshly fried up)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 15 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can great northern beans OR cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Procedure:

1) In a skillet, break up sausage and brown completely. Drain fat and set aside.
2) In a large stock pot or dutch oven, add a couple of Tablespoons of olive oil and saute onions, celery, carrots and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.
3) Add in sausage, tomato sauce, halved grape tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme and all chicken broth. Stir thoroughly
4) Simmer for 10 minutes and meanwhile, heat another medium pot of boiling water and add macaroni pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain.
5)Add beans to the soup pot
6)Add macaroni pasta and bacon bits
7)Add salt and pepper to taste
8) Simmer for 5 more minutes
9) It's ready!

Serve with a big hunk of bread to dip into the hot soup. There is nothing like it! Salute!