Pasta Fagioli

I knew this would be a fairly thick soup from the picture accompanying the recipe. For us it was a bit too thick so I ended up adding almost 2 cups of additional liquid (water since the recipe doesn't call for chicken stock) which naturally diluted the flavors. I did taste it before adding the additional water, and it was very nice.

To be fair to this recipe, I will say up front that I made some changes to use ingredients I had in the house, to wit:

1. I made a half recipe
2. using small white beans rather than cannellini beans,
3. bacon rather than pancetta,
4. and mini farfalle rather than ditalini (using two oz. less than a half-recipe called for since the mini-farfalle is a slightly larger pasta than ditalini).

I did find this to be a surprisingly fussy recipe (see below) given Anne's breezy persona. And I didn't think the additional fussiness was necessary to the improve the flavor or presentation.

She calls for putting the canned tomatoes through a food mill which gives you a smoother broth -- but why? It's a chunky soup anyway.

She also has you partially cook the pasta before adding it to the soup ... apparently to generate pasta water to add to the soup. But the pasta can cook just as readily in the liquid already in the soup, releasing its starches there just as readily as in a separate pot of water.

I think Marcella Hazan's version in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is probably the best recipe I have used, although Fine Cooking has a spicy version that is quick and delicious as well.