The Best Pasta e Fagioli Ever

Every winter season, my (Italian!) hubs always makes Giada’s Winter Minestrone Soup (my favorite!) and Pasta e Fagioli (his favorite!)…I’m not sure which recipe.

Well, this winter season, he found a new Pasta e Fagioli recipe from Bon Appetit and IT IS THE BEST!!!

Like, literally, blows out all the past Pasta e Fagioli recipes he’s ever made out of the water!!

And, because of that, I just had to share!

I always love sharing some of our favorite foods on here. :)

And, not to mention, it totally motivated to pull out my DSLR and start taking food photography pictures again, too!

I’ve missed it! :)

Please be nice…it’s been awhile! Like, YEARS!! I’m SUPER DUPER, rusty! These are actually my second round of pics. The first round didn’t come out so great. Bu since we make this soup A LOT, I was able to capture the deliciousness again! And these came out waaay better!! Yaaaay! And, ha!

I think, the reason why this Pasta Fagioli, is the best recipe EVER, is because there’s smoked ham hock in it.

It gives the soup the best smoky flavor and makes it, so, SO, DELICIOUS!!

I’ve never been a huge fan of Pasta e Fagioli.

I’d much rather have Minestrone than Pasta e Fagioli because Pasta e Fagioli always kinda feels like there’s too much pasta in it which always made me kinda feel like I’m eating spagetti as a soup…which always turned me off.

But this year, I’m absolutely LOVING it, and we’ve eaten 6 times now (maybe even more!) since that cool weather starting rolling in back in the fall.

And we haven’t had Minestrone once.

I’m sorry Minestrone. I do really do love you and Giada’s recipe really is SO GOOD!

But, we’ve just been craving this one SO much!! But I have feeling we’ll be eating you soon. :):)

My hubs makes his chicken stock from scratch for this soup. I used to do this all the time, but he’s taken over and really loves doing it.

He usually soaks the beans for a few hours before cooking, but, lately, I’ve been asking him to use canned beans, because I feel like they’re a lot softer that way and easier to digest.

I always feel like beans need to be soaked for days for them to be soft and easy to digest. And being busy parents, we just don’t have that luxury to soak beans for days right now in our lives. Ya feel me, parents!? :)

So you can use either…soaked dry beans or canned beans…it will still taste the same!

He pulses the veggies in a food processor until they’re finely chopped, so they’re not super chunky in the soup.

Then he adds in the stock, the veggies, the beans and the smoked ham hock and then lets that simmer for a good while.

He used to let the pasta cook with everything, but the soup would taste SO starchy and it would be SUPER thick and there would be way too much pasta. It really wasn’t good.

But now he cooks the pasta on the side and then we add it to the soup when we’re ready to eat and it’s SO much better that way!!

Once everything has been simmering for awhile and we’re getting closer to “get in my belly time!!!”, he takes out the smoked ham hock and cuts it up into small pieces, not too small, and then adds all the chopped up pieces back in.

When it’s in a serving bowl and ready to eat, we drizzle olive oil on top, add finely chopped parsley and freshly grated parmesan on top and, then, of course, we have some toasty, crusty, yummy bread on the side!

It is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!

There really is NOTHING better than a nice, warm bowl of soup on a cold winter’s day.

Oh gosh, I AM SOUL happy that my hubs found this recipe from Bon Appetit!!

It has truly become one of my (our!!) favorite soups, because it really is SO unique with that added smokey, ham hock and smokey ham hock flavoring in it.

I finally LOVE Pasta e Fagioli!!! Wohoooo!!!!

My hubs is so happy since now we eat his favorite soup more! Ha! :):)

I want a bowl right now!!!

So, if you LOVE Pasta e Fagioli, or you’re looking for a new soup to try, I think you may fall in love with this, like my hubs and I have!

Maybe you’ll make it six times in a row, like we have! :)

If so, let me know…I’d love to hear!!

Thanks again, Bon Appetit!!

This recipe IS awesome!!!!

And, gosh…I had SO much fun taking pictures of it, too…even though, it’s been SO long and I’m SUPER rusty!! OMG!

But, CREATIVITY is SO much fun!! And I gotta start somewhere!!

Whether I’m the one cooking or the I’m the one photographing…either way…CREATIVITY ROCKS and ignites SO much INNER JOY!!!!! :)

Because, yes, finding new recipes like this IS joy!!!

Woohoo!!!

Bon Appetit, my friends!!! Bon Appetit!!!

Pasta e Fagioli

Ingredients

6 cups chicken stock, homemade or your favorite brand of choice (I personally LOVE the Kirkland brand from Costco..it has the best flavor in my opinion and I use it A LOT!)
8 oz dried cannellini beans (or whichever white beans you prefer), or canned
8 oz ditalini pasta (or any small pasta of choice)
1 smoked ham hock
4 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white and pale parts only, halved lengthwise, coarsely chopped
1 bunch of Tuscan Kale, ribs and stems removed, leaves chopped (the original recipe calls for just torn kale leaves…the hubs did this once and it wasn’t fun to eat because the kale leaves were way too big…we were picking it all out like crazy. LOL!)
15 oz can whole tomatoes
1-2 Parmesan rinds (optional but SO GOOD in it!!)
1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
fresh parmesan for grating
6 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
Parsley
freshly ground pepper
sea salt
toasted, crusty bread of choice (we use a French, Italian baguette or sourdough bread)

Directions

If using dried beans, soak them over night or place beans in a large pot, cover them with water (like you do with pasta) and bring to boil on high heat. As soon as the water comes to boil, remove pot from heat, remove any bubbles that may have formed on top with a wooden spoon, stir in a palmful of salt, cover and then let sit for an hour. Once done, rinse and set aside.
You can start heating up pasta now, or whenever you’d like during the cooking process. I love to have the pasta cooked and ready, because when it’s added to the soup when it’s ready to eat, the warmth of the soup heats the pasta right up.
So, in my opinion, it’s good to have it done and out of the way so the focus can be on everything else that needs to be cooked. One less thing to think about!
And, like the original recipe says, don’t try to skip a step and cook the pasta in the soup while it’s cooking…the noodles will absorb all the available liquid and the liquid will be thick and gummy. It’s really not good that way int the soup at all!
If using canned beans, just open the lid, put them in a strainer and rinse off all the liquid that’s on them, until all the foamy bubbles on them is gone. Drain and place to the side.
Chop up four carrots.
Take one, white and pale part of leak, cut half and chop.
Cut ends and outside layering off of six garlics.
Chop kale. Set aside until the very end of cooking.
Place chopped carrots, chopped leak and garlics in food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Set aside.
Place whole tomatoes in food processor or immersion blender and blend up so they’re more crushed (optional, but we always do this…we don’t like chunky tomatoes in our soup). Set aside.
Place 1/3 cup olive oil in a large part of Dutch oven over medium heat.
Once oil is heated, add chopped carrots, leak and garlic. Mix around so the bottom of the pot is covered and the vegetables are mixed in with the oil.
Season with a few pinches of salt and pepper (or more if you’d like!)
Stir vegetables often as they continue to cook for four minutes, or until the vegetables start to sweat out some of their liquid. You want the vegetables to get very soft, but not too soft and loose their coloring.
Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until vegetables are softened and juicy. If mixture starts to brown, reduce heat.
Add in chicken stock, beans, whole tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low.
Add in parmesan rinds (if using) and bay leaves and smoked ham hock, let simmer, for one to three hours.
Take out parmesan rinds.
Take out ham hock and place on cutting board. Cut and/or fork off meat from the bone. Then place back in soup.
Add chopped kale.
Let simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes.
Finely chop fresh parsley.
Grab your parmesan and cheese grater.
Heat up bread in oven or toaster oven. We wrap bread in foil. Heat in toaster oven for 5 to 10 minutes…sometimes 15. Then take out of foil and let bake another few minutes. This way the inside is soft and then the outside is crusty! SO GOOD!
Divide soup into bowls. Add the pasta. Mix.
Drizzle olive oil, slowly, on top.
Add finely chopped parsley on top.
Add freshly, grated parmesan cheese on top (the more the better!!!)
Sit down with the people you love.
Put on music that makes you smile.
Light a candle.
And SAVOR IT, UP!!!