There are thousands of rice and beans recipes out there, but legumes and noodles don’t get the love they deserve. Pasta e Fagioli is a traditional vegan pasta dish from Italy and features beans and pasta being cooked in a hearty tomato-based sauce.
Ingredients and Method
- Onions, Carrots and Celery: Classic Italian soffrito ingredients
- Garlic and tomato paste: building the flavour
- Vegetable stock, herbs and passata: Creating the stew
- Fava Beans
- Small-shaped Pasta
Build the flavour base
- Make the soffrito by sautéing onions, carrots and celery.
- Add tomato paste and garlic
Next, we will make the broth/stew:
- Add your drained and rinsed beans
- Fill with vegetable stock, fresh herbs and cook for some time
- Add passata and continue
- Blend and return a few ladles of the soup to help thicken it up
Finally, we are going to cook the pasta in the pot, which will make them absorb the flavours and further emulsify the sauce. I recommend using some small pasta shapes.
Optionally, fill the pot with liquid (vegetable stock or water, depending on salt levels) and cook until the pasta is al dente.
Don’t forget to remove any unwanted herbs, adjust the seasoning and drizzle some olive oil when plating
Notes and Tips
This is a blueprint for a one-pot pasta and bean dish, so you can easily customize this dish by swapping:
- Beans: use chickpeas, white beans or even kidney beans
- Pasta: in this recipe, I used small rigatoni, but use any other small shaped
- Herbs: Use any combination of thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, parsley and basil
Before adding the pasta, taste the stew and adjust the seasoning and make sure it is salty enough, as the pasta will dilute the taste. Don’t salt right away and check the recipe instructions for more information.
The Recipe
Pasta e Fagioli
Zutaten
Method
- Peel and finely dice the onion. Wash the carrot and celery stalks and cut both small pieces (as big as the onion dices).
- Finely mince garlic cloves
- In a large pot, sauté the soffrito (onion, carrot, and celery) in olive oil over medium heat. Cook it with a pinch of salt until the vegetables are soft (6-8) minutes.
- Add garlic and continue for 1-2 minutes, before adding the tomato paste and stirring until it is dissolved.
- Drain, rinse and add the beans to the pot. Add enough vegetable stock to cover the beans and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low, add fresh herbs, passata and some black pepper. Mix and keep simmering for 10 minutes.
- Transfer 3 big ladles of the stew to a bowl, blend until smooth and return the mixture to the pot. Mix thoroughly to help thicken the sauce and keep it on a light simmer for 5 minutes.
- Give the stew a taste and decide, if it needs more seasoning. It is supposed to be pretty salty, but wait for the next step before adjusting the salt-levels
- Add the pasta to the pot and add enough liquid to cover the pasta in the following way. If the stew needed more salt, just fill it with vegetable stock, else use water.
- Bring the pot to a boil and cook until the pasta is al dente. Make sure to stir occasionally so nothing burns at the bottom of the pot.
- Give the stew a final taste to adjust the seasoning and remove any unwanted herbs.
- Pour on a plate and finish with a drizzle of olive oil
