Pasta Fagioli
Published on January 20, 2023
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Quick Summary
Pasta Fagioli is a hearty Italian soup made with pasta and beans. You will love this easy one pot meal, it is a family favorite! Serve with garlic bread or crusty bread on the side.
I was in the mood for major comfort food so I made a big pot of Pasta Fagioli. It’s the ultimate comforting meal.
Pasta Fagioli (Pasta e Fagioli) means “pasta and beans”, and is a traditional Italian soup. It is made with tomatoes, vegetables, beans, herbs, and pasta. Basically all of my favorites in one pot!
It is 100% cozy and the perfect recipe for fall, winter, or whenever you are craving classic comfort food.
I also love this recipe because it’s an easy weeknight dinner. You only need one pot and the entire family loves it, including the kids, especially when garlic bread is served on the side. Major win!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Olive oil– for sautéing the veggies.
- Onion, Carrot, Celery, and Garlic– the classic base to any good soup.
- Bay leaves– remove before serving!
- Diced tomatoes– use canned tomatoes, do not drain!
- Vegetable broth– chicken broth will work too.
- Cannellini beans– rinse and drain the beans. You can also use navy beans or great northern beans.
- Parmesan rind– the rind is the secret to bringing out the BEST flavor. You can buy parmesan rinds at the cheese counter or save your parmesan rinds and keep them in the freezer. They are great for adding flavor to soups and sauces.
- Herbs– dried thyme, basil, and rosemary.
- Crushed red pepper– for a little heat.
- Pasta– use dried ditalini or other small pasta
- Fresh parsley– stir in at the end!
- Grated Parmesan– for garnish!
How to Make Pasta Fagioli
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Stir in the bay leaves.
- Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth, beans, and parmesan rind. Stir in the thyme, basil, rosemary, and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and black pepper. Let simmer on low for about 15 minutes.
- Stir in the pasta and turn up the heat to medium. Cook until pasta is tender, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the parsley. Remove the bay leaves and parmesan rind.
- Ladle into bowls and serve with grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Helpful Tips
- There are a lot of variations of pasta e fagioli, the main requirement is pasta and beans. This is a vegetarian pasta fagioli recipe, but meat lovers enjoy it too. It is so filling.
- If you want to add sausage or ground beef, you certainly can.
- For the pasta, we use ditalini pasta. If you can’t find ditalini pasta, use another small pasta such as elbow macaroni. If you need the recipe to be gluten-free, use gluten free pasta.
- Make sure you use a good brand of canned tomatoes for the best flavor. You can also use fire roasted tomatoes if you want a little extra flavor.
- This is a very thick soup, more stew like. If you want more of a liquid soup, you can add more broth, but we like it thick.
- If you want to add some greens, feel free to stir in fresh spinach or kale.
Serving Suggestions
- Garlic Bread or Crusty Bread
- Bruschetta
- Easy Green Salad
- Simple Kale Salad
- Simple Arugula Salad
- Caprese Salad
How to Store
I always love having leftovers of this soup because I think the soup tastes even better ton the second day.
- To store in the fridge, let the soup cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for up to five days. You can reheat the soup in the microwave or in a pan on the stovetop. If the soup is too thick, add more vegetable broth.
- To freeze, you can freeze leftovers for up to 3 months. The pasta might break down a little after thawing and reheating. If you know you are going to freeze the recipe, you can leave the pasta out and add it after thawing and reheating. Just cook the pasta and stir it in.
More Soup Recipes
- Easy Minestrone Soup
- Vegetable Soup
- Lentil Soup
- Easy Black Bean Soup
- Tomato Basil Soup
- White Bean Soup
- Potato Leek Soup
Want more soup recipes? Find all of our SOUP RECIPES HERE!
Pasta Fagioli
This easy one pot meal is the perfect weeknight dinner. Serve with crusty bread or garlic bread.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes
- 2 (14.5 oz) cans vegetable broth
- 2 (14 oz) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 small parmesan rind
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- Dash of crushed red pepper
- 1 cup dried ditalini or other small pasta
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Grated Parmesan cheese for serving, optional
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Stir in the bay leaves.
- Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth, beans, and parmesan rind. Stir in the thyme, basil, rosemary, and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and black pepper. Let simmer on low for about 15 minutes.
- Stir in the pasta and turn up the heat to medium. Cook until pasta is tender, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the parsley. Remove the bay leaves and parmesan rind.
- Ladle into bowls and serve with grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
For gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta. We like to serve the soup with crusty bread or garlic bread. If you need the recipe to be vegan or dairy-free, you can leave out the Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
Calories: 195kcal, Carbohydrates: 32g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 5g, Sodium: 305mg, Potassium: 514mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 1940IU, Vitamin C: 21.5mg, Calcium: 87mg, Iron: 2.8mg
Have you tried this recipe?
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Excellent vegetarian meal – made exactly as listed. Definitely a keeper!
This is amazing. I used 1 can of Cannelloni beans and 1 can of black beans. My dinner guests loved it and so did I.
I am so glad you liked the soup. Love the mix of beans!
I had never tried pasta e fagioli, before trying your recipe. I love it! I’ve made it twice now. I find myself craving it now. As a vegetarian, it’s very important that I have enough protein in my diet. This certainly fills the bill! There are four other people in my family that are definitely not vegetarians. So, for them, I sauté one mild and one spicey Italian sausages. They add that to their soup and really like it. Don’t forget the Parmesan rinds!!! It’s absolutely imperative for this dish. With the pandemic going on, I’ve had to substitute and just use a fifth of a parmesan wedge in its place. That’s worked out well. Thank you for the best recipe I’ve tried in years! Yum!!!!
Glad you liked it!
I plan to make this soon, I will substitute dairy-free parmesan (there are so many brands; my favorites are Violife and Follow Your Heart) and I will also add a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast instead of the parmesan rind, for extra cheesy flavor. Dairy is such a cruel industry, also horrible for the environment and not very nutritious. I’m excited that this can be so easily veganized. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing. I love using nutritional yeast.
This looks absolutely delicious! Sadly :), my husband hates chunks of tomatoes. Anything you can recommend in place of diced tomatoes? Thanks!
You can use crushed tomatoes!
Ha! I just made a big pot of Pasta e Fagioli today before I read this!!!! I will try your version sometime. It really is such a tasty type of soup that the whole family loves! Thanks for posting. 🙂
Great minds think alike:) I hope you try our recipe soon!
I only have pinto beans on hand. Can I use them instead of the other beans?
Sure, if you like pinto beans and that is what you have, it should be fine.
Made this tonight for the first time, it was excellent! I will definitely make it again!
I am so glad you enjoyed it.
Easy to make and the end product was so delicious. Thank you! Keep it up.
Easy to make and it turned out delicious. Thank you for the great recipe! Keep doing what you do.
This looks so easy – have you tried this in the slow cooker??
Thanks! I haven’t but I am sure it would be fine, just don’t add the pasta until the end so it doesn’t over cook and get mushy.
happy to see one of my favourite meals in your blog 🙂
I stumbled here by chance, looking for another recipe and seen “Pasta e Fagioli” -> had to check it out.
your recipe is great and I’m going to try, but let me share my own favourite variations:
1. fagioli borlotti instead of cannellini -> take some out once cooked and before adding the pasta, blend them and then add back, it makes it creamy 🙂
2. I personally prefer passata to canned tomatoes: I prepare a tomato sauce with garlic, onions, passata, some chili pepper (very little) and salt in another pot, then add it last minute after the pasta is cooked 🙂
great job with this blog
ciao from italy
So good and super quick and easy to make! My one year old devoured it! He had 2 helpings for lunch and dinner I was shocked. I subbed out one of the cans of cannelini beans for chickpeas which worked well, I’ll probably do this again for the next batch, which I’ll definitely be making this week. Highly reccomend!
So excited to try this! What is the serving size per serving?
Is it 195 calories for one cup??
Made this recipe today and it was absolutely delicious!! I only had 2 cans of tomatoes so that’s what I used. And omg the Parmesan rind is a MUST! Why didn’t I hear about this before? I feel like I missed out on something great my whole life!! It’s a life changer for sure! Thanks for the recipe!!
I am making my first batch of this soup tonight. I made one mistake, which I ad libbed around, but now I have a question/concern.
First, my mistake. I added a can of cannellini beans, and then discovered that I had only 1 can!! I could have sworn that I bought two cans, but I chose to look everywhere in the pantry cupboards. I found a can of white/navy beans, and used them. The navy beans are not quite as large as the cannellini beans, but otherwise they are pretty similar. After the navy beans were well incorporated into the soup, I found the missing can of the cannellini beans sitting next to the computer where I had the recipe on the screen!!! I added them to the pot, and so there will be plenty of beans!!
My question: will the soup suffer if I cool the pasta separately and then ladle the soup on top? I worry that the soup will not be consumed right away, and that the beans will become mushy sitting in the broth. Any suggestions?
You can cook the pasta separately and then add it in if you aren’t going to eat it right away and are worried about it getting mushy.
I added about 2 extra cups of vegetable broth and spinach in the last 15 minutes. Delicious soup!
This recipe tastes like Italy in a bowl. Next time I will cook the pasta separately and add when serving. The pasta sucked up all the liquid. Delicious nonetheless.
I have made this twice already. The first time, I used store-bought cannellini beans, but the second time I prepared some dried great northern beans that I cooked. For the second recipe, I also chopped up a turnip. Because of the added volume I added two cups of the water that I cooked the beans in to gets some flavor from that as well. I also added a chopped up turnip, which added some really nice nutrition and flavor. The only thing I have not been able to get is the parmesan rind, because I live in a very rural area, however, next time I go to the “big city” I am going to stop by the cheese counter and see if I can get some parmesan rinds to try that as well. When I told my wife I was gonna make Pasta e Fagoli the first time she was like, eh? Now she’s a convert.
For an interesting twist- what kinds of substitutions might work for someone who is intolerant to both garlic and black pepper? Really leaving black pepper out of things isn’t a super game changer but sometimes garlic is
Loved, loved, loved this. Didn’t have all the ingredients on hand but decided to make it anyway. Didn’t have a parmesan rind and added some kale toward the end of the cook time. Didn’t have vegetable broth so I used Herb Oz sodium free bouillon so mine wasn’t vegetarian but really delicious. Will be making this on a regular basis during the winter months.
I come from a long line of Italians… This is a Staple all year on Fridays (no meat) and during Lent.. I won’t pick a part your Recipe… But I wanted to add… 3 Beans are always used… The Beans don’t matter….We called them… The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost….
Any substitute for parmesan rind?
You can leave it out, but it does add great flavor!
Great soup. It is thick like a stew which we really love. Thanks for this recipe.
Easy, delicious soup. I used 1can each of cannellini beans and red kidney beans. And orecchiette pasta. I cooked pasta separately until al dente and added to the soup.
Made a double batch today and boy am I glad I did. Excellent flavor. Taking some to my son and his wife for dinner tonight. Can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow!
Yay! Another wonderfully delicious and healthy dish I can make for the Vegans in my family. You are a lifesaver, Maria!
Is flat leaf parsley the same as Italian parsley?
And in the picture it looks like the parsley is for garnish. Is this correct?
Yes, it is the same. I stir it in at the end, but you can use it as a garnish too!
Absolutely delicious, and so hearty. Kid approved, and this makes a very generous pot of soup. We used some higher quality fire-roasted diced tomatoes for 2/3 of the tomatoes; it made a big difference in my opinion – thank you for the recommendation! I may cook the ditalini separately next time as I’m fussy about frozen pasta lol.
My father-in-law always put peas in his, no beans, have you ever heard of that?
I always do beans, but if you prefer peas, you certainly can use them or add them.
Delicious! MIL and hubby approved
Yay!!
This recipe is a hearty and comforting meal that can be made quickly, making it a great weeknight dinner for my busy family! Loved your recipe!!
– Jack from Skilletguy.com
Glad you loved it!