Slow Cooker Pasta e fa*gioli Soup (2024)

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A classic Italian soup, this delicious Slow Cooker Pasta e fa*gioli Soup takes about 45 minutes to prep, then the slow cooker does the magic!

Sweet little Emmy (our two-year-old granddaughter) and I were sitting together earlier this week,enjoyingbreakfast. She was cheerfully gobblingup herbowl of granola, yogurt and fresh fruit and I was eating a bowl of this delicious Slow Cooker Pasta e fa*gioli Soup. After a few minutes, shestopped andpeered into my bowl. She looked up at me and asked, "Why you eat soup for breakfast, Gigi?"

"Because I'm odd." I replied.

"Why you odd?" she asked quizzically.

"That's how God made me".

"I no think I wanna be odd, Gigi."

Okay I agree, it is a bit odd to eat soup for breakfast, but after having this delicious Slow Cooker Pasta e fa*gioli for dinner the night before, I could hardly wait to try it again. I'd been working on the recipe for a few days, tweaking this, changing that and I was pretty sure it wasright. After my "odd" breakfast, I was sure it was ready to roll!

If you check online, thereare lots of uniqueversions of this classic Italian soup which, literally translated means"pasta and beans".It was traditionally meatless, originating as a peasant meal. The recipe varied according to the region and available ingredients. Thesedays, someversions are thin and soupy where others are thicker, with more pasta, beans and other ingredients, almost like a potage. Pancetta (an Italian bacon) is oftenadded for flavor and here in the States, Olive Gardenhas made Pasta fa*gioli quite famous with their rendition, which includes ground beef.

In our recent Café Reader Survey, there were lots of requests for more slow cooker recipes as well as easy entertaining recipes. With this in mind,Ihad fun creating a delicious meal-in-one Pasta e fa*gioli, specially designed for the slow cooker. It can beprepped in the morning (or even the night before), left on it's own all day andrequiresminimal last minute effort. And thefragrant aroma that'llgreet you after a day at work or school is amazing!

The type of beans that are used in Pasta e fa*gioli varieswidely. In Italy, the bean of choice is the borloti (aka cranberry) bean but seems that here in the U.S., red beans, white beans, big beans, small beans are all quite common. The New York Times has a version with pinto beans and another recipe I looked at called for cannellini beans ANDlentils. I chose dark red kidney beans and loved the way they came out intact and beautiful, yet meltingly tender after their stint in the slow cooker.

One othervariable is the pasta. I saw lots of versions that used elbow pasta,though it seems that Ditalini (a small straight pasta with open ends)was the traditional pasta of choice. Ditalini can be found at most larger grocers that carry a decent selection of pasta, or you can goonline. Feel free to use elbow pasta or any small pasta, if you have difficulty finding Ditalini.

I always love to incorporate as many veggies as possible in my soups, so in addition to chopped onion, this one calls for a whole pound of carrots. Being a bit lazy, I used the baby carrots which don't require peeling. Another time saving ingredient I love to use in soups and sauces is purchased pesto. It adds a ton of delicious basil and garlic flavor with almost no effort.

I keep a jar of pesto in my freezer. When I want to use it, I let it thaw slightly, just enough to scoop out what I need, then return it to the freezer. It can also be frozen in small individual jars or ice cube trays. I used to do that, but find it easier to just freeze the whole jar. If I can't make my own, I really like the pesto from Costco's. It's reasonable and the big jar lasts a long time in the freezer.

Other than chopping the veggies, the only other prep that's done for this Slow Cooker Pasta e fa*gioli is browning the meat. I used lean ground sirloin, as well as a smaller amount of Italian sausage, for lots of hearty flavor. Once the meat is browned, make sure to drain off any fat that's accumulated to keep the soup healthy. Before transferring the meat to the slow cooker a splash of dry red wine is added and cooked away till nothing but rich flavor's left. I also add a small can of tomato paste at this point and let it cook with the meat for a few minutes till it's deeply red and fragrant.This little bit of extra time in the beginning yieldsa finished soup, well worth the effort!

Other than fresh rosemary, the rest of the ingredients come from pantry cans and bottles. Just dump everything in the slow cooker and the magic begins! Oh and speaking of slow cookers, I have totell you about about an amazing little machine I've had fun playing with. Though this is not a sponsored post, I recently received a slow cooker from KitchenAid.

It's actually called aMulti Cooker because it (get this!)has the ability to sear, boil, sauté, simmer as well as slow cook. What that means is, I can brown my meat right in the slow cooker, then add the other ingredients and switch it over to slow cook.

Talk about a time and work saver, I'm very impressed! It's also so sleek and gorgeous that it's perfect for serving guests. Thank you KitchenAid!

Serve the soup topped with a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of beautiful, greenparsley for a delicious and lovely presentation.

Although most slow cooker recipes are intended for easy, everyday dinners, this one's also elegant and delicious enough for entertaining. I won't promiseeveryone will speaking Italian by the time theyfinish dinner, but I can tell you they'll be seconds requested.Hey, it's so good, some oddball might even want the leftovers for breakfast!

Disclosure: Although I was given a KitchenAid MultiCooker, I was not required to write this post or compensated for it monetarily. The opinions are definitely my own.