Copycat Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup

We made this soup a couple Sundays ago. I made a grave error in the process... 

Nothing was wrong with the soup itself- but my pronunciation of the soup was BEYOND tragic. 

My beautiful mother-in-law speaks fluent Italian. She's part-Italian. She served her mission for the LDS church in Italy. And let's just say, she's probably been to Italy more times than you can count on one hand. 

So you can imagine the cringe that happened when her son hears his wife say: 

We're having FAGG-EE-O-LEE soup tonight! 

I would have taken that opportunity to make fun of my spouse, but Ryan's a saint. He smiled at me sweetly and corrected me: Fa-jo-lee. 

Somewhere, Giada de Laurentiis threw up, I'm sure. 

Other than me slaughtering the pronunciation, the soup was PHENOMENAL. The Italian sausage added the perfect amount of warmth and heat to the soup, there's a pile of beautiful veggies, and the time to make the soup is close to 30 minutes start to finish! No simmering all day in the crock pot or babysitting a pot of soup on the stove for hours. It comes together so quickly, and tastes incredible. We've tried a lot of soups so far this Fall/Winter, and this soup is by FAR our favorite! 

xo, 

blondie

Copycat Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup

Makes 8 heaping servings

ingredients:

1 C ditalini pasta, uncooked

1 lb Italian sausage

2 T EVOO, divided

1 C carrots, grated or cubed - about 2 medium

1 C celery, diced (we chop ours pretty small)

3/4 C yellow onion, chopped 

2 large cloves garlic, minced

3 (8oz) cans of tomato sauce

3 C beef broth

1 C water

1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 T granulated sugar

2 T basil, minced

1 t dried oregano

3/4 t dried thyme

1/2 t dried marjoram

salt and pepper to taste

1 (15oz) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15oz) can great northern beans, drained and rinsed

Italian cheese blend for sprinkling

method:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pot over medium high heat and cook Italian Sausage through until crumbled and there's no pink. Pour onto a paper towel lined plate to drain and set aside. 

2. In the same pot, add another tablespoon of oil and keep heat a little above medium. Add onion carrots, and celery, and cook until translucent. Then toss in garlic. Saute another minute. 

3. Reduce heat to low, then add in tomato sauce, beef broth, water, canned tomatoes, sugar, basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, cooked sausage, and salt & pepper. Cover with lid and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

4. While soup is simmering, cook pasta according to directions on package. Drain. 

5. To the soup, add cooked pasta, kidney and great northern beans, and cook 5 minutes longer to heat everything through. Serve warm with grated Italian cheese blend. 

Recipe adapted from: Cooking Classy