For one brief shining moment, I am reaping the benefits of forethought. It's an unfamiliar feeling to me. However, during my charlie-foxtrot of a morning, even though I had about 8,000 unwashed dishes and a clogged sink going on in my tiny galley kitchen, I threw the stuff for pasta fagioli in my crock pot.
Later, after conspicuous bragging on Facebook, someone asked me for the recipe, and since I live to brag and please, here you go.
Like most of America, I was introduced to pasta fagioli by that place that does unlimited soup/salad/breadsticks. It makes sense that this friendly presentation was one of the first things I attempted when I first tried working with dried beans. I've cooked it a lot, and I think I've got a pretty good, in no way claiming to be authentic, version.
I start with soaking a cup of dried Great White Northern beans overnight. I know Cooks Illustrated and Alton Brown now say you don't have to soak them, but considering the area I live in and the likely rate of non-turnover in the way of dried beans, I find it prudent.
I started with the soaked, undrained beans in the bottom of my crockpot. Today I added a rind of Parmesan, one chopped onion, one enormous peeled and diced carrot, one diced red bell pepper, and one handful of chopped mushrooms. I realize my veggies may be more minestrone-like, but there is worse to come. Deal with it. I added a jar of Newman's Sockarooni sauce, and then poured a little veggie broth into the jar to shake and then poured that in. I added more veggie broth (I think ending up at 3 cups) and a few tablespoons of prepared pesto.
I put the whole shebang on low and left for six hours. Upon my return, I added a package of frozen chopped spinach, some salt and half a veggie bouillon cube. I like my fazool to be fairly thick and stew-like. Then I left again for about two hours.
I came back with a pizza for my ungrateful, anti-legume spawn, and put on a pot of SALTED water for pasta (in my case, two partial boxes of white and whole-wheat macaroni.) Did I mention the pasta was cooked in SALTED water? I used to never add salt to the water for pasta. When I finally did, I was like, HOLY SHIT, this stuff has a taste! Hi, Department of the Obvious checking in.
Another side note: the first few times I made pasta fagioli, I cooked the pasta in the soup. Bleah. Unless you have a ravening horde to feed and no chance of leftovers, cook the pasta separately. Otherwise you end up with a really thick soup full of pasta that is disintegrating apace with your lack of interest in eating it.
Anyway, buen provecho! Bon appétit! Slainte! Opa! YOLO!
1 cup dry white beans, such as great northern beans, rinsed and looked over (yes, sometimes there are rocks in there)
water to cover
1 finely chopped onion
1 peeled and diced huge carrot, or two normal carrots
1 de-seeded red, yellow, or orange bell pepper. Don't bother with the green ones.
about 8 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 jar of marinara sauce (I like Newman's Sockarooni)
1 32 oz box of vegetable or chicken broth (I was experimenting with making a vegetarian version for my niece's visit)
3 tablespoons prepared pesto
1 (or more, I'm not your parole officer) Parmesan rind
1 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 cube of vegetarian bouillon
salt to taste
water salted to the level of broth
the equivalent of a pound of small, dried pasta. (I am always using up leftovers, and I think the varied shapes are the culinary equivalent of Shabby Chic. Don't try to disabuse me of this notion.)
Fresh-grated Parmesan
Put the first group of ingredients in the crock pot, willy-nilly. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (this is a forgiving treatment.) Taste the broth, make sure your beans are tender, and add the next 3 ingredients. Once everything is cooked and flavored to your liking, start the SALTED water for the pasta. Cook pasta per the box & drain. Serve yourself a lovely bowl of pasta covered with soup, with Parmesan flakes melting into the top. Bask in the knowledge that you are a domestic rock star.
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