Pasta Fagioli with Homemade French Bread

This light and healthy soup is ready in a bout 30 minutes!

Many recipes call for cooking the pasta right in the soup but I never like pasta cooked this way. One of the main problems is if you reheat for the next day, the pasta gets overcooked. And that is never a good thing.

olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced
1 stalk celery, slced
2 garlic cloves
1 T fresh chopped parsley
2 t basil, rubbed
1 bay leaf
1 (28 oz) can tomatoes, pureed
1 (14 oz) can chicken broth   
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans
cooked small shape pasta (I used elbows)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, carrot and celery til softened, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, parsley, basil and bay leaf, and cook another minute. Increase heat to high; stir in tomatoes, broth and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in pasta and salt and pepper. Taste and adjust as desired. Remove bay leaf.

I served the soup with a little grated parmesan and a thick slice of homemade French bread. The recipe for the bread can be found here: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977501387&nav=MyGatherhttp://media-files.gather.com/images/d387/d297/d745/d224/d96/f3/full.jpg

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