Winter is the perfect time to cozy up with a bowl of vegan pasta e fagioli. This Italian pasta and white bean soup is loaded with clean but delicious flavor from rosemary and tomatoes, and it makes the perfect meal by itself or with a hunk of grilled Italian bread.
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Hearty, flavorful pasta e fagioli
Pasta e fagioli, which simply translates from Italian to "pasta and beans," is a stunningly simple dish that's also stunningly flavorful. And stunningly hearty.
Also stunning is the fact that you can create all this magical flavor with mostly pantry ingredients, much like those other stunning pastas, pasta e ceci, (vegan) pasta puttanesca and (vegan) penne alla vodka.
I especially love vegan pasta fazool or pasta e fasule, as it's also called, in the winter, when the temperatures dip and there's nothing better than getting your palms around a hot bowl of vegan soup.
There's so much to love here, with the creamy, buttery beans, the al dente pasta, the aromatic rosemary, the sweet-tangy plum tomatoes, the spicy garlic and red pepper flakes, and all of the flavor from a sofrito of carrots, celery and onions.
Make this pasta the next time you are in need of some comfort but don't have the time to make a lavish vegan lasagna. It will offer you the same warmth for very little work!
Ingredient notes
- White beans. You can use canned beans or cook them from scratch, but you want them tender when you add them to the pasta fagioli soup. Cannellini beans, navy beans and great northern beans will all work for this recipe.
- Herbs: You can use fresh rosemary and oregano, but they can be too expensive to buy in winter and using dried herbs gives you great flavor as well. I also toss in a bay leaf when I cook the beans. If you use canned beans, add a bay leaf to the pot along with the other herbs.
- Canned plum tomatoes. The tomatoes are a major flavoring ingredient here so use a good quality canned plum tomato. Try and stay away from diced tomatoes and pureed tomatoes, unless that's all you have.
- Mushroom stock. Many pasta e fagioli recipes include meat or at least a ham hock added to the pot for flavor. We are meatless here, but that doesn't mean we don't want that amazing umami -- mushroom stock will add that to your vegan soup. If you don't have mushroom stock, use a good vegetable broth.
- Ditalini pasta. This small, thimble-shaped pasta is traditionally used in pasta e fagioli. You can substitute with any small pasta shape, including orzo or elbows.
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Recipe card
Vegan pasta e fagioli recipe
Ingredients
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6-8 cloves garlic (crushed or minced)
- 1 large carrot
- 2 stalks celery
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cups cooked white beans (or two cans of white beans like cannellini, navy beans or great northern beans)
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 dried bay leaf (optional)
- ½ to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 28 oz canned plum tomatoes (crush whole tomatoes with your fingers)
- 4 cups mushroom stock (or vegetable stock)
- 8 oz ditalini pasta (or any small pasta shape like orzo or elbows)
- ¼ cup vegan parmesan (for garnish)
Instructions
- Rough-chop the onions, carrots and celery and place them in a food processor. Pulse until chopped fine. You can also mince the veggies by hand, but the food processor just makes it quicker. Mincing the veggies fine will help them melt into the soup as they cook, adding body and flavor to the soup.
- Cook the pasta until a couple of minutes short of al dente. Drain, rinse under running water, and set aside.
- Heat EVOO in large pot or Dutch oven along with the crushed garlic. Saute until the garlic begins to turn a light golden.
- Add the soffrito veggies to the pot--carrots, onions and celery. Add some salt and ground black pepper, stir, cover and cook for 10 minutes over medium low heat or until the soffrito has cooked down but has not browned.
- Add the rosemary, oregano and red pepper flakes to the pot and mix in.
- Add the beans to the pot followed by the tomatoes. Mix.
- Add four cups of hot mushroom stock or vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Cover and cook 10 minutes over medium heat.
- Stir in the cooked pasta and mix well.
- Continue cooking the soup for another two minutes, check seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if needed. Turn off heat and serve hot or warm. Garnish soup bowls with vegan parmesan and, if you want, a drizzle of EVOO.
Notes
- If you are serving this to someone who wants meat at every meal, or if you want more plant-based protein, you can also add 14 oz of a meatless beef substitute or vegan sausage to the pot. If you do, saute it for a couple of minutes before adding the beans.
- If you don't have white beans or don't want to use them, you can use pinto beans, black beans or red kidney beans instead.
- If you want more greens in the soup, add 5 oz of roughly chopped spinach, chard or kale to the pot before adding the beans.
- You don't need a garnish of fresh herbs in this pantry-based soup, but if you have some parsley on hand add it at the end for a bit of fresh flavor.
Nutrition Information
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Pasta e fagioli FAQs
Yes. Some cooks add dry pasta to the soup and let it cook in the liquid, but I don't recommend it because pasta lets out a lot of starch and this can make the soup taste gummy and starchy. Instead cook the pasta separately and turn off the heat a couple of minutes before it reaches that perfect al dente texture. Add it to the soup and the pasta will continue to cook for a couple more minutes without giving out as much starch. This is especially important if you use gluten-free pasta, which is very starchy.
The starches in the beans and pasta thicken up this soup quite a bit. Add four cups of stock at the beginning and add more later if you want the dish to be soupier but only after adding in the beans. Always add hot stock or broth to the pot so you don't temporarily stop the cooking process.
You can make this vegan pasta e fagioli a day or two ahead, but it will thicken as it stands. Thin out with more stock and reheat before serving.
I eat the pasta fagioli by itself but if you want to add a little extra oomph serve with a piece of crusty grilled bread drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with a clove of garlic. You can also serve a leafy salad on the side, like this Vegan Caesar Salad.
Refrigerate: Store the pasta fagioli for up to three days in the fridge.
Freeze: Freeze in an airtight container or freezer safe container for up to three months.
Reheat: Thaw the soup, preferably in the fridge overnight, and reheat over the stovetop or in the microwave. Thin out with stock as necessary.
More vegan soup recipes
You might also like these recipes for vegan minestrone soup and vegan Italian wild rice soup.
Liv says
Made this for meal prep this week, and it was absolutely yummy! The depth of flavor was amazing. I split the difference and did 3/4 tsp of red pepper flakes, and it was an absolutely perfect amount of spice. Delicious recipe that I will definitely be making again.
Cat says
I just made this and it's delicious. Had to make a few subs as I had no onions, no celery, no beans (!) But using red peppers, and a tin of baked beans this was still fab. Thanks Vaishali for yet another great recipe.
Vaishali says
So happy you loved it, Cat! Great substitutions.
david fryett says
Recipe sounds good. Often, in Sicily (where it is called "pasta fasul"), chickpeas, rather than white beans, are used. And this soup is often made without stock of any kind. The chickpeas are cooked in water along with onions etc. That is the base of the soup. The sofrito is made and the beans and tomatoes are added and covered with the cooking liquid and allowed to cook while the pasta is prepared. when ready, it is added at the end. Sometimes the rind from a wheel of cheese is added. Al dente pasta is nice, but usually in soup the pasta is served softer, at least in my experience.
Vaishali says
Hi David, that's very interesting to learn. I love the idea of chickpeas in this recipe. I imagine it would be great. The pasta continues to cook once it is added to the hot soup so by the time you eat it it really is quite soft. And yes, I did know about the parmesan rind--that's why I added some vegan parm as a garnish. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
David J Fryett says
Chickpeas or lentils are frequently paired with pasta in Sicilian cooking and were some of my childhood favorites. One simple but tasty recipe without pasta that I had often was chickpeas cooked as in my previous comment put into sofrito with some cooking liquid and allowed to cook down until thick and then served with garlic bread.
JFTR, in Sicily the rind which would be used (if used) would be from locally produced cheese. Pecorino Sardo is a typical favorite, but Sicily is a huge island and it would vary from place to place. Parmigiano is available in Sicily, but it is more expensive and not necessarily preferred to sheep-based cheeses (i.e. Pecorinos).