Pasta e Fagioli

I've been on a quest lately to use up the items in the pantry and freezer that have been patiently waiting for me.  I went through a bit of a stockpile/coupon craze for a while and that left me with a nice supply of pantry goods.  We also usually find a farm that is selling a cow once a year and get our freezer stocked with beef.  Not to mention that I really like to try new recipes and rarely cook the same thing more than once, so that leaves a lot of options for things that I purchased and only used in one dish.

We've already gone through an entire month of meals where I had at least the main ingredient on hand and now we're on our way into month two.  (It seems there may also be a month three . . . )  I have been systematically marking ingredients off my list and tonight I had two things that wound up finding their way out of the cupboards - small shell pasta and cannellini beans!

My hubby and I love to go to Olive Garden and get the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and breadsticks.  It's so yummy and cheap that it feels like we're getting some amazing deal and still leaving so full we could explode.  I always have a hard time deciding which soup to go with and generally end up with a bowl of more than one variety, but my man always goes with the Pasta e Fagioli.  Thus I was excited to find that this lovely recipe could help clean out my cupboards!  The shell pasta isn't exactly what the recipe calls for, but I think it was a suitable substitute.

With this pile of stuff, it's gotta be soup right?

The recipe that I decided to try was from Top Secret Recipes as I'd had good luck with their recipe for another one of my Olive Garden favorites, the Zuppa Toscana soup (sorry friends - apparently you have to pay for that recipe now).  The taste tester declared that it was just as good as the real thing and was pumped about the amount of leftovers he had for less than the price of a meal out with me.  So I think the experiment was a success.  My only complaint was that it almost turned into more of a chili than a soup once the pasta is added, so I might suggest more liquid or less noodles.  The flavor however was perfect!

Can you smell that simmering goodness?

Yummo!  This is a seriously hardy soup!

Now we'll see if I ever make it again!  But now I have this half-used bottle of V8 and some celery lying around so I guess I better find a use for that too - hmmm, where's the vodka . . .