Pasta e Fagioli soup

One of my readers, Karen Sue, requested the recipe for this soup.  Its a knock off of a similar soup found in a certain restaurant that serves soup, salad and breadsticks.  My kids have loved it forever and a few years ago, I decided I'd rather make my own.  This is what I've come up with.  Its been adjusted several times over the years, but is pretty easy.  It ends up being like an Italian chili with pasta.  Mine is pretty thick, but you could certainly thin it out. 

Past e Fagioli

1 lb ground beef

2 carrots grated

1 small onion chopped

3-6 cloves garlic

4 cups swiss chard (this will melt down to about 1 cup of cooked chard)

1 qt pasta sauce (use anything you like)

1 qt tomatoes

1 t oregano

1 t basil

1/4 t hot pepper flakes

1 can kidney beans

1 can cannelini beans

2 cups beef stock

pasta of your choice

Brown beef and veggies in large stockpot.  Add remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer for 2- 3 hours.  Serve with pasta.

I always keep the pasta and soup separate until serving.  This will allow the pasta to retain its shape and not get soft if the soup is not all eaten at once.  I also will can this up without the pasta.  To do so you need to thin out the soup, so that it is less chili- like in consistency.  Pour into prepared jars and process at 11 lbs pressure for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts in the pressure canner.  If I'm making a large batch for canning, I also don't let it simmer for 2 hours since it will cook so much in the pressure canner.

This post is part of Whole Foods for the Holidays.  Hop on over to Gnowfglins to check out what others are cooking up.