Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli
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A super easy, no-fuss copycat recipe that’s wonderfully hearty and comforting, except it tastes 100x better than the restaurant-version!
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what is pasta e fagioli?
Pasta e fagioli is a classic Italian soup literally translating to “pasta and beans”. This is typically made with vegetables, a variety of beans and pasta in a tomato broth.
why i love this recipe
- One pot dinner. This is one of those soups that come together so easily on the stovetop in a single pot, even the uncooked pasta gets cooked right in (unless you’re cooking it separately for leftovers). One pot means less clean up, less dishes!
- Uses pantry staples. The ingredient list may seem long, but most of the ingredients use pantry essentials, sparing you from that emergency grocery run.
- Freezer-friendly. Pasta e fagioli freezes very well sans pasta, making it perfect to stock up the freezer for those cold winter nights, for new moms or for those recovering from surgery.
tips and tricks for success
- Use short cut pasta. Ditalini, macaroni or a small shape pasta similar in size to the vegetables and beans is ideal.
- Save leftover Parmesan rinds. Get more out of those expensive Parmesan cheeses by using up the leftover rinds! Adding a Parmesan rind slightly thickens the broth and adds a level of nutty richness to the soup.
- Add leafy greens. Pasta e fagioli is a great way to sneak in some greens for those picky eaters. Stir in kale, spinach, cabbage, swiss chard or collard greens near the end of cooking time until wilted.
- Stir in more stock with leftovers. When reheating leftovers, stir in more stock as needed as the pasta will continue to soak up the broth. The pasta can also be cooked and stored separately.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with pasta e fagioli
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli: Frequently Asked Questions
Ground beef or ground turkey will work very well here. Pancetta or bacon are also great additions.
Pasta e fagioli can absolutely be made in the crockpot, cooked low and slow for 7-8 hours. Recipe here.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the pasta (or else they will get mushy) in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding freshly cooked pasta and a splash of broth (if needed) when serving.
Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound spicy Italian sausage, casing removed
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 (16-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup ditalini pasta
- 1 (3-inch) Parmesan rind
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15-ounce) can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup shaved Parmesan
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add Italian sausage to the skillet and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; set aside.
- Add onion, carrots and celery, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in garlic, basil, oregano and thyme until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in Italian sausage, chicken broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, water, pasta and Parmesan rind; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 10-15 minutes.
- Stir in beans until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, topped with Parmesan.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
After months of procrastination, I decided today was the day to find a recipe on line for Pasta e Fagioli. This recipe popped up first and, after reading some of the comments, I decided to give it a try. My, oh my! Your recipe was spot on, Chung-Ah. Thank you for sharing this. I knew it was really good when I tasted it. When I served it for dinner, my girl friend’s response was “UMMMmmm” to her very first spoonful.
For any of you out there looking for THE recipe for O.G.’s Pasta e Fagioli soup, look no further. This is it.
Thanks again, Chung-Ah.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was great! Everyone loved it. I doubled the recipe and froze half the batch for another night. I added two tablespoons of crushed red pepper to add some zing to it. I will definitely make this again.
Made this for dinner tonight. Husband, who was not excited as he isn’t fond of the OG version, loved it and agreed that it’s 100x better than the original. So good, in fact, that he asked for leftovers tomorrow night! Damndelicious is my new go-to site for recipes. Thanks so much for the recipe.
This soup was a huge hit! I also took some to a friend recovering from surgery and she loved it. I’ll be making it again next weekend for a soup swap. I think it will freeze just fine but I am going to leave the pasta out and attach it dry in a little baggie to be cooked and added at time of serving so it doesn’t get mushy. Thanks for a great recipe!!
If you wish to use fresh cooked pasta with a 1 cup microwave reheat of a thawed soup, use top ramen noodles in place of the ditalini. KISS
Recipe just looks fantastic! There’s just two of us and I was wondering if you knew if this would freeze well or if you wouldn’t recommend it. Either way, this one is getting made this week! Thanks so much!
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! I recommend using your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
This will freeze just fine. Be sure to defrost before reheating though (or you will have broken noodles and beans from breaking apart the chunks). I usually just freeze it in a freezer bag and, when I want it, leave it out until it’s defrosted. It will thicken a lot after you freeze and reheat it so you may want to add more broth.
This freezes well, for single servings, 8 ounce mason jars are ideal.
I have successfully frozen a slightly different version of Pasta Fagioli.
This freezes very well, for single servings, use Mason jars, thaw overnight, pre heat thermos containers with boiling water , warm soup in microwave, add to thermos and lunch is ready. Include crackers and veggies to create a healthy lunch. Bon Appetite.
My daughter made this delicious soup today, and it is truly that!! She used half mild and half hot Italian sausage, as she is feeding small children.
This recipe is a definite keeper! Thank you.
She served it with homemade breadsticks..mmm good
This was great! I substituted the sausage for ground turkey, and it came out delicious.
Made this delicious soup today. Bravo! Garbanzo beans substituted for the beans listed, only because it was on hand. Trick I learned from great-aunt is to purée 1 can of the beans & stir in when you add 1 can of whole beans. This is to add texture as well as hiding some of the beans. This is a personal preference. We also topped the soup with grated cheese & served with garlic toast.
By 2 stalks of celery do you mean 2 sticks (ribs) or 2 whole bunches of celery?
I mean 2 ribs – 2 whole bunches of celery would be too much!
Good question, I had the same thought!
Made this last night. Was looking for a quick but hearty soup recipe on Pinterest and I’m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GLAD I found this one. Best soup I’ve ever had. Love the spice. Thank you for posting!!
Do you drain beans before adding to pot or leave the juice?
Penny, as indicated in the recipe, the beans should be drained and rinsed prior to using.
This looks fantastic! Can it be made in a crock pot?
Ellen, please understand that it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to the slow cooker method without further recipe testing. I recommend using your own judgement to convert this recipe to utilize a slow cooker.
I make it in the crockpot all the time–no changes necessary 🙂 I just brown the sausage on the stovetop first. Occasionally I will sautee the veggies as well but usually just throw it all in the crock.
Made this for dinner tonight. Super easy and super good! Only thing I did different was instead of cooking the pasta first; I just added the uncooked pasta to the soup while it was simmering. I needed to add a little extra broth/water in the end after it had soaked up in the pasta; but a 1 pan clean up is worth it 🙂 Thanks for this great weeknight recipe that I could make after work and have dinner ready for me and my boys.
You forgot to mention when to add the beans
Sal, please read the directions carefully. The addition of the beans is already written in the recipe.
I don’t see where it says to add the beans either.
Mish, it is listed in the second to last step:
Stir in pasta and beans until heated through.
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where can i buy ditalini pasta? can i buy it at any local market? like sprouts or trader joe’s?
The local market should have it, but I was unable to find it at trader joe’s.
this soup & the quinoa chili were such delicious and healthy recipes! All the kids at my party loved them! i couldn’t find ditalini in my area so i just diced little pieces of penne & it worked just the same. thank you!
Mini shells would also be a child pleasing option for the soup.
Target has the pasta
I actually found Barilla brand at Walmart, and I was shocked, as I had already looked at 2 different grocery stores!
Ronzoni makes ditalini pasta. If you can find ditalini, you can use something very similar called tubetti.
You can use small pasta shells. They will hold some of the soup too.
You can replace the sausage with ground turkey its just as delicious!!! 🙂
This is an excellent recipe, though it took me closer to 50 minutes from start to end. I couldn’t find the exact pasta, so I put in the mini elbow pastas instead. I’ve also had the Olive Garden chemical/salt version of this soup, and it is not very good.
Finally made this dish and it was a big hit with all.
Every Day is soup day. It’s light just by way of being soup.
As a kid I hated soup, but now I love it any time of the year! Great recipe, Chung-Ah!