Pasta e Fagioli

No, no.  There is not a typo in the title.  I did, in fact, make more pasta e fagioli soup!  Ron and I downed the soup from earlier this week in a day.  He had suggested that I put meat in the next batch.  Well, I had a busy week coming up, all of the leftover ingredients from the previous day, and a bookmarked recipe for soup that I had been dying to make for a while now!

So, I decided to make more soup!!  This soup turned out just as good as the last one.  But, I must admit that I preferred the previous recipe.  I enjoyed the spices a bit more.  However, I will add chicken the next time I make that soup.  On the other hand, Ron prefers this recipe.

Warning:  this makes a TON of soup!  We will be eating soup all week long, but this is just as I had planned.  Yum!

Pasta e Fagioli
adapted from Annie's Eats, who adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients
2 tbsp. butter, divided
1 (20 oz.) package sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 large (or 1 medium) onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 carrots, thinly sliced
4 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
48-64 oz. reduced-sodium beef broth (depending on how much liquid you would like)
1 (28 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt
4 oz. small dry pasta (such as ditalini) (I used 8 oz.)

Directions

1. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a Dutch oven or large stockpot over medium-high heat.
2. Add the sausage to the pot and brown, crumbling as it cooks.  
3. Once the sausage is browned, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon and discard any excess grease.
4. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the pot.  
5. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery, and saute over medium heat until vegetables are soft, 8-10 minutes.  
6. Return the sausage to the pot, add the can of diced tomatoes with juices, stir briefly, and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Add the beans, beef broth and tomato sauce to the pot.  
8. Add in all of the seasonings, stir well, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.  
9. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer at least 30 minutes.
10. Add the dry pasta and continue to simmer on low for another 30 minutes.  
11. Serve w/ a sprinkling of some freshly grated Parmesan, some crackers (my particular fave) or some garlic toast.