Pasta Fagioli

Original recipe from Crockpot Tuesdays

I am alone for dinner tonight, and soup is often one of my favorite things to pull out of the freezer when I'm on my own. I pulled a bag of Pasta Fagioli out tonight and realized I had not posted this recipe yet. I love this soup, and it's great out of the freezer. I made this recipe a while back. It makes a lot, and after a day or two, it became evident that we were not going to make it through all that soup before it went bad. I put about 3 quart bags of it in the freezer to save for another day. It froze great although the pasta is really soft. If I were making this as a freezer meal, I wouldn't technically cook the pasta. I would mix it in the hot soup after turning off the heat.

I substituted Italian sausage for the ground beef. It definitely adds to the flavor.

Pasta Fagioli
1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta (to add at end)

Directions:

Brown the meat and drain well. Add carrots, onion, and celery to the crockpot. Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper and oregano. Stir in the meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. At end of cook time, stir in 1/2 cup pasta. Cover and cook for another hour on low.

Serve with parmesan cheese if you’d like. Enjoy! This recipe makes about 8 generous servings.