I’m going to confess something here: I hated this soup as a kid. In the winter, my mom made this so often that if I even caught a whiff of it, I’d call my friend Debbie to see what her mom was making for dinner, and then ask if I could eat there. Thanks to my “adopted” mom and dad (aka. Deb’s parents), I ate dinner at their house about once a week.
My mom’s best friend’s kids were obsessed with this soup. Joyce and Harold lived next door to my mom and stepdad growing up, then retired and moved down the street from them in Pennsylvania. As their kids became adults, they’d visit and request gallons of it to take back home to Massachusetts, which my mother would happily oblige. It used to make me shudder to think of it.
I refused to eat or make this soup until just recently. I miss my mom so much that it’s visceral at times. When I miss her terribly, I make the food that she loved. I make this soup and I’m transported back to our tiny kitchen in Massachusetts. We’d eat this with ripped hunks of bread to sop up the juices… or if you were me at the dinner table, you’d just eat the bread. It’s not that the soup isn’t delicious–it is. But too much of a good thing just ruined it for me. I still can’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after eating them every day for two years in elementary school and summer camp. I have issues.
When I posted on social media a couple of months ago that I made this, I had to tell my cousin Giovanna that I still hated lupini beans so she didn’t think I was kidnapped!
Other things I hated as a kid that I’ve changed my mind about: mushrooms, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.
So, give this a shot. It’s easy to throw together, hearty, and best of all uses pantry ingredients. Feel free to use those last few grape tomatoes that are just dying a slow death on your counter. A word of advice, though: Just don’t make it every week.
Pasta Patate e Fagioli
A hearty soup with beans, potatoes, and tomatoes. Perfect for a cold winter night.
- dutch oven
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 cups potatoes, preferably red, but russet will work (diced into ½ inch pieces)
- 2 cans cannelli or borlotti beans (drained)
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 3 cups water
- ½ tsp dried rosemary
- ½ tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, with their liquid (or 1 qt home canned tomatoes, diced)
- 4 Tbsp fresh parsley (chopped fine, or 1 Tbsp dried parsley )
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 8 oz ditalini pasta (boiled for 9 minutes in salted water, drained, rinsed with cold water and set aside)
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving (optional)
Heat the olive oil in the dutch oven over medium heat.
Add onion, salt, and pepper to the oil and saute the onions until they are translucent.
Add garlic, rosemary, and thyme to the onion mixture. Saute for another minute until fragrant.
Add broth and water to the pot, bring to a boil.
Reduce heat until the broth is at a slow boil. Add potatoes. Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
Add beans and tomatoes (with their liquid) to the pot. Increase heat and bring back to a slow boil for 20 minutes. Taste broth and adjust salt and pepper. Remember that if you're using the parmesan cheese, it will add more of a salty flavor.
Divide cooked pasta between 6 bowls. Ladle roughly 2 cups of the hot soup over the pasta. Top with parmesan cheese (or vegan equivalent) and parsley. Allow to cool for a few minutes (about 5) before eating.
Leftovers freeze well. Do not add pasta to the leftover broth as it will become mushy.
While one might be tempted to dump this all in a pot and let it cook, I’d advise against it. The acid in the tomatoes would keep the potatoes from being tender, and the pasta would become quite mushy after sitting in the broth too long.
To make ahead, freeze the finished soup WITHOUT the pasta. Once the soup is thawed and reheated, prepare the ditalini per the al dente instructions on the box, drain, and add pasta to the bowls.
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