Pasta e Fagioli, revisited

I've already made this soup and blogged about it, but back then my picture taking skills weren't all that great, and also the recipe was by weight and I wanted to nail down the ingredients better. So for the first chilly weekend of Fall here I knew I wanted to make it again in my new dutch oven. It was definitely not as much of a chore to make since I wasn't so focused on getting exact weights of the ingredients. This recipe is scaled down to make 4.5 quarts, but I definitely needed my 7 quart pot to cook it in.

PASTA e FAGIOLI (copy cat Olive Garden)

Source: adapted from cdkitchen

a drizzle of olive oil

1 lb. ground beef

1 small onion, diced

1/2 of a small 1 lb. bag of baby carrots, chopped

5 stalks of celery, diced

2 (14.5 oz.) cans of diced tomatoes

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (32 oz.) carton + 1 (14.5 oz.) can of beef broth

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 1/4 tsp pepper

2 1/2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped (I used dry)

3/4 tsp tabasco sauce

1 jar (1 lb. 10 oz.) spaghetti sauce (I use Ragu)

1 cup dry small pasta (such as ditalini or elbow macaroni)

salt to taste

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1. Brown ground beef in oil. Drain if necessary.

2. Add onion, carrot, celery and diced tomatoes. Simmer 10 minutes.

3. Add beans, beef broth, oregano, pepper, parsley, tabasco sauce and spaghetti sauce.

4. Simmer soup on low for about 30-45 minutes until carrots are almost tender.

5. Add pasta to pot and simmer on low for about 15-30 minutes until pasta is just shy of al dente. As the soup cools, the pasta will absorb the broth. You can cook the pasta separate and add it to the soup after the soup has cooled.

Pasta e Fagioli

Oh Sweet Jesus! I've never tried a copycat recipe before but this one was hands down a success!! I'm not really a soup eater when out at restaurants, but when I worked downtown a co-worker and I would often head to Olive Garden for the unlimited soup and salad lunch special. I prefer soups with substance so I opted for the pasta e fagioli and it was so good! Ever since my first day enjoying that fabulous soup I have longed to make it myself. Thanks to cdkitchen.com I was able to do so. This has been on my list of things to make for a while now, but the husband was on night work this week so I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to make a big pot of soup and enjoy it for lunch and dinner all week. I scaled the recipe down to make 4.5 quarts and it filled my big pot up pretty well and would be plenty even for a small family. So for all those who were ever in search of a no-fail pasta e fagioli recipe, this is the one to try!

PASTA e FAGIOLI

Source: cdkitchen.com

1.5 tsp oil

1 lb ground beef

6 ounces onion, chopped

7 ounces carrots, slivered (I chopped)

7 ounces celery, diced

24 ounces tomatoes, canned, diced

1 cup cooked red kidney beans (I used 1 1/2 cups)

1 cup cooked white kidney beans (I used 1 1/2 cups)

44 ounces beef stock

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 1/4 tsp pepper

2 1/2 tsp parsley, fresh, chopped (I used dry)

2/4 tsp tabasco sauce

24 ounces spaghetti sauce (I used Ragu)

4 ounces dry small dry pasta (I used ditalini - I recommend cooking this separate and adding at after the soup is cooked)

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1. Brown beef in oil in large 10 qt. pot until brown.

2. Add onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Drain and rinse beans and add to the pot.

4. Add beef stock, oregano, pepper, parsley, tabasco, spaghetti sauce (and noodles if you choose to).

5. Simmer until celery and carrots are tender, about 45 minutes (I simmered for about an hour and a half).

Notes: my soup turned out thicker because I cooked it longer and the pasta went in dry. It's still wicked good though!

Potato Soup sans Shrimp

My friend Dana said she wanted to try this potato soup recipe from Paula Deen. It looked easy enough to me, and it was something I always wanted to try making myself, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Only problem - I don't think I'd like shrimp on my potato soup. I'm one of those weird people that if I try something once, and like it, I can only have it in it's original form (meaning the form in which I tried it the first time). So potato soup to me is creamy potato soup topped with chives, cheese and bacon.

So all I had to do was not put the shrimp in it, and it was simple enough. It wasn't no Bennigan's potato soup (the only potato soup I've ever had - and enjoyed), but I did really enjoy this one. I think I'd try a different recipe before I tried this one again though - I think the chicken bouillon in it is what made it different from what I'm used to. But as long as the hubby liked it (and he did) I consider it a success.

Italian Wedding Soup

aka Little Meatball Soup

My paternal grandmother is pure Italian. When we would visit her for Thanksgiving she would always serve this soup with dinner. I remember always looking forward to it, and if she didn't have it I would be disappointed.

When my mom and I finally learned how to make it, Progresso used to make an escarole soup and that was the only way we knew how to make the soup (well, the basis for it anyway). Then one day I could never find the canned escarole soup so I was at a loss for what to do and so we went a few years without this fabulous soup (because we stopped visiting this grandma because she wasn't exactly local anymore) until, one day I got up the guts to face the fact that escarole is a fresh leafy green available in my grocery store and that it wasn't gross to boil what, to me, was "lettuce." So I gave it a shot and it turned out fabulous so all was right in the world again. And so I shall share the basis of this recipe with you

about 1 pound of ground beef, seasoned as meatballs to your liking (I season mine with garlic, italian bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, mixed with 1 egg)

2 chicken breasts (or you can use canned chicken)

1 head of escarole, chopped and rinsed

1 large can of chicken broth plus a carton of chicken broth

chopped celery and carrots

1 small onion, minced

salt/pepper to taste

about 1 cup orzo pasta

1. In stockpot add broth, escarole, celery, carrots and onion. Set pot to simmer.

2. Begin forming meatball mix into tiny meatballs, dropping in the pot as you form them.

3. Once soup is simmering, season with salt/pepper and add chicken breasts.

4. Cover and simmer on low for several hours.

5. When meatballs are cooked through, boil water separately and cook orzo pasta according to package directions (approx. 9 minutes).

6. Drain and rinse orzo and add to soup.

(Note: the broth is not an exact science. Add more water/chicken broth to your liking. And keep an eye on it while the soup is simmering to make sure it doesn't evaporate.)

Enjoy with a sprinkling of cheese, and some buttered crusty bread!

Beef Stew

Who doesn't love a big bowl of beef stew? Well, my husband, but he doesn't count. So I was on my own for dinner this week, again, and had some beef cubes in the freezer, so I figured it was about time to make the stew.

1 package beef cubes

1/2 bag potatoes, peeled, cut into large chunks

1 small bag baby carrots

1 can of baby peas

beef broth

salt & pepper to taste

cornstarch for thickening

1. Place potatoes, beef cubes and carrots into crockpot.

2. Cover with beef broth.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

4. Thicken with cornstarch and add peas.

5. Season with salt and pepper - a little onion powder is also good.

Nothing special, but always good, and I like it with a few splashes of hot sauce and soft buttered bread. I use fake butter of course.

Chicken Noodle Soup

There's not much to say about homemade chicken noodle soup, except that it's comforting and delicious. And there's no way you can mess it up. So here's my version:

2 large cans of reduced sodium low-fat chicken broth

1/2 bag baby carrots

5-6 stalks of celery

small onion

2 trimmed, boneless, skinless chicken breasts

bag of yolk-free egg noodles

Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Pour broth into soup pot. Set over medium-low heat.

2. Cut up the baby carrots and celery stalks into desired size. Dice up the onion. Add to the pot.

3. Drop in the chicken breasts.

4. Cover and simmer for a few hours.

5. Remove chicken breasts and cut up into small pieces.

6. Season soup with salt and pepper.

7. Cook egg noodles according to package directions. When done, drain and rinse under cold water.

8. Add noodles and chicken to soup pot. Stir.

So easy, so simple, so good.

Oh my deliciousness...

I used to enjoy a great white chicken chili at Good Dog, a bar/restaurant on 15th Street in the city. Since I haven't worked in the city for over a year, my wicked craving for it pressed me to find a recipe to try. Thankfully, FutureMrsWagner on the WC message board had a recipe in her blog which was delicious, loved by both me and the picky husband! I served mini-corn bread loaves with the chili - a la the cheap little box of Jiffy (1 box made with skim milk yields 4 mini loaves - 5 points per loaf)

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

Source: Buon Appetito!: White Chicken Chili

3 cooked and shredded chicken breasts (I used 1 pound of ground chicken)
2 cans chicken broth (I used low-sodium)
2 cans White Northern Beans
1 4 oz. can chopped green chilis (next time I would use 2 cans)

1 packet Country Gravy Mix
2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil (I used canola oil)
1 onion, chopped

1. Cook the ground chicken until no longer pink. Drain and move to a clean bowl.

2. Add and heat the oil. Add chopped onion to oil, stirring until translucent. To further cook the onions until tender, I added a bit of the chicken broth and simmered for a few minutes.

3. Add chicken broth and stir in the cumin, gravy mix and chili peppers.

4. Add beans and return ground chicken to pan.

5. Simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Yield: 6-1 cup servings, or 4-1.5 cup servings

Weight Watchers Points Value: 5 points/1 cup or 8 points/1.5 cups

points values do not include sour cream