Pasta Ai Fagioli (pasta and beans)

Another recipe by Chloe Coscarelli.

She offers a little history lesson behind this recipe. Apparently this soup was originally a "poor person's stew". People would use leftover pasta sauce and make a second meal with it.

This was exactly my plan with this recipe. I already had the majority of the ingredients and needed to use the bottle of opened, leftover sauce in the fridge. So I thought, why not?

Ingredients

2 tbsp of olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup of water
1, 8 oz can of tomato sauce (or 1 cup of sauce)
1 can of cannellini beans (15 oz) (i.e. white kidney beans) drained and rinsed
1 tbsp of fresh thyme
1 tsp of sea salt
1/2 tsp of black pepper
3/4 cup of small pasta shells or tubes (gluten free or not, your choice)

Directions:

1) In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat and add onion and carrot. Cook until soft, then add garlic and cook for a minute more, until fragrant.

2) Add broth, water, tomato sauce, beans, thyme, salt and pepper. Let cook, uncovered, until the liquid starts to boil

3) Add pasta and let boil, stirring gently, until pasta is tender

4) Add salt to taste.

Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

Note 1: I added celery to the onion and carrot because I had some pre-cut celery in the fridge. The combination of carrot, celery and onion in cooking is called Mirepoix and is the beginnings of many many dishes.

Note 2: I added a couple dashes of Italian seasoning. *shrugs* It was there.

Note 3: I used quinoa pasta. I've been eating a lot of regular pasta lately. And while I love me some carbs, I decided I needed something with less gluten and more protein.

Note 4: I used only a couple dashes of salt, not the full tsp stated in the recipe. There was no extra "salt to taste" either. Keep in mind that broth and store bought sauce is usually quite salty. You may not need any extra salt.

Note 5: The longer this soup sits, the thicker it will get as the pasta absorbs more liquid. It'll will still taste the same though.

Ingredients. Minus the water and broth. 

Mirepoix and garlic!

With the rest of ingredients added! 

Finished soup

I prefer my soup thickened. DINNER! Some nice crusty bread is great with this. 

Some upcoming recipes to look forward to.

-Spicy tomato soup - Chloes vegan Italian Kitchen
-Ginger mushroom summer rolls - Thug Kitchen
-Savory carrot tempeh sandwiches - Thug Kitchen
-Roasted chickpea and broccoli burritos - Thug Kitchen