Olive Garden's Pasta e Fagioli Soup is a version of the traditional Italian Pasta Fagioli recipe. It is loaded with beans, pasta, vegetables, a spicy tomato sauce, and beef. My copycat version is easy to make at home in a crock pot or a Dutch oven.
🥣Ingredients
Ground beef
Pasta—small
Vegetables—celery, carrot, onion, garlic
Tomatoes—diced, sauce, juice
Beans—White (Cannellini, Great Northern, or Navy beans) and red kidney beans
Seasoning—oregano, basil, thyme, salt, and pepper
Pantry—vinegar, beef broth
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Featured Comment by Brian:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Yet another lovely recipe in this amazing collection of wonderful recipes."
Pasta e Fagioli, which means "pasta and beans," is a traditional Italian peasant soup. It is a hardy, thick soup packed with vegetables, beans, and pasta—meat is optional.
This is a "fancy" soup you can serve to company. The ingredients are easy to modify to your needs, and the soup is perfect for making ahead and storing well.
Check out these other delicious Italian recipes. Start with one of my favorites, Crock Pot Baked Ziti, or the chicken version Crock Pot Chicken Baked Ziti.
👨🍳How to make Pasta e Fagioli Soup—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Dice an onion, chop three stalks of celery, julienne a carrot, and mince garlic.
2. Brown the ground meat in a skillet with the onion and add the garlic for the last minute of cooking. Drain the fat.
3. Rinse beans and add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato juice, beef broth, and spices to the pot.
4. Cook on low in a crock pot for 6 hours or simmer covered on the stovetop for an hour until the vegetables are tender. Add small pasta cooked al dente.
5. Add the vinegar (optional). Cook for 10-15 minutes more on the stovetop or 15-30 minutes in the crock pot before serving.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
🤔Make it your way—options and variations
Meat—Meat is optional, but my version includes ground beef. Ground meat like Italian sausage, ground chicken, or ground turkey can also be added. For flavor, bacon or pancetta are commonly added. You can also leave the meat out and make an excellent vegetarian soup.
Pasta—Ditalini pasta, short tubes with ridges, is the classic choice. Use what you like, but it should be small. I like to add some color with tri-color rotini.
Beans—The old Italian recipes use Cannellini beans. But the Olive Garden version is made with white beans like Great Northern or Navy, along with red kidney beans.
Broth—The recipe, as written, uses ground beef, so the beef broth is used as the base to replace fluid drained from the beans. However, chicken broth is more common if no beef is involved. Or vegetable broth for a vegetarian version.
Seasoning—You can use one tablespoon of Italian season to replace the basil, oregano, and thyme. Fresh herbs will add more flavor if you have them.
Optional—Vinegar acts as a flavor and color enhancer. It is optional but should be added near the end of cooking in any soup to avoid evaporation.
📖Other Italian Recipes
For more easy Italian, check out my Baked Chicken Spaghetti, Boursin Cheese Sauce with Chicken and Pasta, and Easy Meatballs.
Chicken Parmesan Soup (Crock Pot or Stovetop)
Chicken Parmesan Soup recipe is a great Italian soup with tender chicken and pasta combined with Parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings in a flavorful tomato broth.
🍽️Serving
Top your soup with fresh parsley and grated parmesan cheese. Breadsticks or a classic bread, like Julia Child's French Bread, with a side salad will make a perfect meal.
❄️Storage leftovers
During storage, the pasta absorbs liquid from the soup, somewhat changing its texture and thickening it. If you plan to store, cook without the pasta and add it when reheating.
In the refrigerator, seal airtight and store for up to 4 days. To freeze, seal in an airtight container and freeze for 3-4 months.
🔥Reheating leftovers
While it is preferred to store the soup without pasta, sometimes this doesn't work, and you will need to add some water or broth when reheating.
If stored without pasta, cook that first.
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.
❓FAQs
While both are Italian soups, Pasta e Fagioli is usually thicker and features pasta and beans. Minestrone features more vegetables and is thinner. But there are differences between regionals in Italy.
📖 Recipe
Pasta e Fagioli Soup
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Ingredients
- 1 lbs ground beef - lower fat preferred
- 1 onion - medium diced
- 3 stalks celery - chopped
- 1 carrot - large or 2 medium julienned
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 28 oz diced tomatoes - undrained
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 12 oz tomato juice - or V8 vegetable juice
- 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 Low-sodium beef broth - If not using beef, change to chicken or vegetable broth
- ½ pound small pasta - cooked al dente
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar - optional
Instructions
- Dice 1 medium onion and chop three celery stalks. Juline one large or 2 medium carrots. Mince 2 cloves of garlic.
- In a large pot, such as a Dutch oven, start to brown 1 pound of ground beef over medium-high heat.
- Add the prepared veggies to the browning meat—cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic at the last minute of cooking and drain the fat when done.
- Rinse 1 can each of red kidney and great northern beans.
- In a Dutch oven or 5 quart or larger crock pot, add two 14 ½ oz cans of diced tomatoes, 15 oz can tomato sauce, 12oz of tomato or V8 vegetable juice, 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 on low in the crock pot for 6 hours or simmer for 1 hour covered in the Dutch oven.
- Cook ½ pound of small pasta al dente. Add to the soup when done cooking. Also, add 1 teaspoon vinegar.
- Simmer for another 10-15 minutes on the stovetop or 15-30 minutes in the crock pot.
Crock pot instructions are in the notes below.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- You can use Italian Seasoning (1 tablespoon) to replace the herbs in this recipe.
- Ground beef is optional, and you can make it vegetarian or use other meats. If not using beef, use chicken or vegetable broth instead of beef.
- 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 store with pasta, you will need to add some fluid to reheat.
- Make this gluten-free by using gluten-free pasta.
Your Own Private Notes
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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My version is adapted from Food.com recipe Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli with a few changes to simplify and expanded options to make it your own.
Originally Published January 5, 2013. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Brian Mooney FRMS says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
This was outstanding… Loved it. My family wanted the recipe.
Dr Dan says
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 says
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 says
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.