This Ina Garten Soup Will Be on Weekly Rotation in my Kitchen All Winter

Pasta e fagioli is an Italian soup that is pure comfort food, especially on a cold night. Here in the U.S. the pronunciation often ends up as pasta fazool, and between all the Italians and Americans who make the soup (no matter how it's pronounced), there are countless recipes for this pasta and bean soup. It’s like chili or BBQ sauce: There are tons of versions and everyone believes their version is the best, including Stanley Tucci, who adds marinara sauce to his version rather than the more traditional tomato sauce.

Ina Garten recently posted her own pasta e fagioli recipe on Instagram, the start of a week’s worth of her “favorite soups so you can stay warm and cozy all week long!” 

When I saw the recipe, I went straight to my pantry to see which ingredients for Ina’s pasta e fagioli I already had, made a list of what I needed, and went to the store. The timing was perfect. It was very cold the day I made the soup, and I desperately needed it to take the chill out of my bones and my mood.

And I wasn’t the only one excited about this soup. Even Jennifer Garner commented on the Instagram post, “I’m making this tomorrow.” 

What’s in Ina Garten’s 16-Bean Pasta e Fagioli

Ina’s personal spin on the soup is to use a 16-bean mix instead of the more often-used white beans. Plus, she adds some pancetta, and spices it up just a little with some crushed red pepper. 

These are all the ingredients you’ll need to make Ina’s pasta e fagioli:

• 16 Bean Soup Mix: A 16 bean mix of dried beans is relatively easy to find. Goya makes one and Target carries one under its Good & Gather brand. 
• Pancetta: Cured pork belly that is salt-cured but not smoked.
• Canned crushed tomatoes: Ina recommends San Marzano tomatoes. 
• Dry red wine: Ina leaves the type of wine up to you. Use a wine you’d like to drink because you won’t use the whole bottle, and if you don’t like the wine to drink, you may not like how it affects the taste of the soup. 
• Good chicken stock: She prefers homemade. 
• Miniature pasta, such as ditalini or tubettini. 
• Freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese. Just trust her on this. Use freshly grated and only freshly grated. 
• Olive oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Red wine vinegar
• Julienned fresh basil leaves, for serving (I omitted that)

Find the specific ingredient amounts and directions for making the soup her cookbook “Cooking for Jeffrey” on page 70.

Tips for Making Ina’s Pasta e Fagioli

This soup is relatively easy to make, but here are a few tips to make things even easier:

• Plan ahead to cook the beans: The recipe calls for starting with dried beans, which means you need to cook or soak the beans before making the soup. Since there are 16 different types of beans in the dried mix, not all of the beans will soften at the same time so if you’re doing the quick soak method (where you bring the beans to a boil, turn off the heat and let them soak for about an hour) you may find some beans are soft and others need more time.   
• Allow yourself some room for substitutions: My grocery store didn't have pancetta, so I bought thick-cut bacon to use instead. I also used boxed chicken stock, and jarred garlic instead of fresh. 
• Let a favorite local wine shine in this soup: Yes, the recipe is based on an Italian dish, but there is no reason you can’t support a local winery while making it. I used a red Bordeaux blend from Unionville Vineyards in New Jersey, made with locally grown grapes. Because the wine was in the soup, it was also the perfect pairing to drink with it. 
• Puree the beans if you don’t have a food mill: The recipe calls for taking 1/3 of the soft beans and running them through a food mill so the meat of the beans separate from the skins. This creates something like a bean paste to thicken the soup. My food mill has been MIA for a while so I used an immersion blender to puree the beans, adding a little chicken stock while blending to help it along. You could also use a traditional blender or a food processor. 
• Add a Parmesan rind or two: The recipe doesn’t call for adding Parmesan rind, but saving Parmesan rinds to add to soups, stews, risotto and more is such a smart move. Yes, you’re already adding shredded Parm to this soup toward the end, but if you add a couple of rinds while it’s simmering, you’ll add extra depth of nutty, cheesy goodness. 
• Don’t forget the crusty bread: A loaf of Italian bread is the perfect accompaniment for this soup to sop up all the flavorful broth. 

My Review of Ina Garten's Pasta e Fagioli

My home smelled amazing while the soup simmered. And wow, was it fabulous! There’s a 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper in the soup and it gave the soup just a hint of heat in your mouth, but I wouldn’t call it spicy. The recipe makes a huge pot of soup and I happily ate it two nights in a row and still had enough to give some to friends as well as stash a few servings away in my freezer. When I run out, I’ll be making more because I’ll want to enjoy this soup at least weekly all winter long.