I attempted to make Pasta E Fagioli soup since I love the one Olive Garden makes. Pasta E Fagioli essentially means "pasta and beans" <--thanks wikipedia. This soup has a beef/tomato-y base, filled with beans, veggies, and meat. I googled for a decent recipe and of course tweaked it a bit to fit my needs and tastes. Here is what I came up with....Please note, my soup came out SUPER SUPER thick because I am a ding dong and didn't read the complete original recipe regarding amount of noodles...so instead of 8 oz I poured in the entire 13 oz box of noodles. So, this can be soup or it can be a fabulous pasta dish, your choice :-P. Here we go!
Ingredients:
1lb ground turkey (or beef, whatever...)
1/2 a large sweet onion, chopped
2 decent sized carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large can of diced tomatoes (28 oz) undrained
32oz carton of beef broth or stock
1 can red kidney beans, drained
1 can cannelli/white kidney beans, drained
2 teaspoons oregano
4 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chilli powder (optional, I was given some homemade chilli powder and it added extra smokiness to the soup)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
8 ounces of pasta....or the whole box if you want more of a pasta dish rather than soup, whatever you like
1. Brown your turkey/beef in a skillet.
2. Throw everything EXCEPT noodles into the crockpot and stir well.
3. Set the crockpot on "low" and leave for 4-8 hours (doesn't matter a whole lot...mine was on for close to 10 hours).
4. For the last 30 minutes, crank your crockpot up to HIGH and add your noodles, stir them in. Stir the soup occasionally so the noodles are able to cook evenly. In 30 minutes or so the noodles should be soft.
