Pasta Fagioli

Okay, I'm a total foodie and I love to cook. I love checking out vegan/plant based food blogs. But I also love the Food Network. Years ago I would watch Emeril every night at 8 p.m.  Now I mostly enjoy Restaurant Impossible and Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. It's hard though since almost every restaurant on DD&D features meat and/or dairy products.  It does give me inspiration because I like to figure out how I could make things plant based. Our homemade pizza dinner was from an episode the other night from DD& D and so is the pasta fagioli.

From all that I've ever known pasta fagioli to be a soup but this one Italian restaurant made it more like a meal that was pasta, sauce and beans. They used red kidney beans and I found another recipe online that used cannellini beans. So, I ended up using cannellini beans because we didn't have any kidney beans.  I will probably try it with both beans next time.  My family loves kidney beans but they aren't my favorite.

This meal was a super hit with my family.  I really think they loved the beans with the pasta.  I think I may not cook the pasta in the sauce next time.  I will just put the sauce and beans together and then spoon over the cooked pasta.

Pasta Fagioli

Olive oil  (about 2 – 3 T)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic

1 15 ounce can tomato sauce

1 T julienne basil leaves

1 15 ounce can cannellini beans

4 cups water

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. sugar

16 ounces ditalini pasta

Directions

In a big pot over medium heat sauté onions in olive oil (enough to cover bottom of pot about 2 T); cook covered, stirring frequently until onions are translucent.  Add tomato sauce, basil, minced garlic and simmer on low for about 10 minutes.  I used my immersion blender and made this sauce smooth.  

Add the cannellini beans, water and uncooked pasta.  Cook until pasta is done approximately 10 - 15 minutes.   

Add more water and vegetarian bouillon if you want to make this more of a soup.