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Our Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup copycat recipe tastes just like the original. This hearty, Italian-seasoned soup is easily made in a slow cooker.
Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Recipe
This Pasta e Fagioli Soup is one of our family’s most favorite cold weather meals. It reminds me of fall leaves, football season, sweaters and cozy fires. It’s my top choice at Olive Garden every time we go there to eat, so I decided to find a way to make it at home. This copycat recipe tastes exactly like the popular restaurant dish!
What is Pasta e Fagioli Soup?
This Italian soup literally means “pasta and beans” so that’s what you’ll find in this dish, along with ground beef, Italian seasonings in a rich tomato based broth. Pasta E Fagioli is very similar to another hearty favorite, minestrone soup. The difference between these two soups is minestrone uses several different veggies and Pasta e Fagioli features onion, celery and carrots for flavor, but no other vegetables.
Ingredients in Fagioli Soup
- Ground Beef – For this recipe I like to use lean ground beef (93%/7%). If the beef is too fatty, then it makes the soup very oily. You can also sub the beef for Italian sausage, bacon, or pancetta.
- Onion, Carrots, and Celery – This combination of savory vegetables is often called a mirepoix. Together, they create a base of flavor for the soup. White onion or yellow onion both work great.
- Diced Tomatoes – Tomatoes help to make up the base of the soup broth. Make sure you don’t drain the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes and the juices to the crock pot.
- Red and White Kidney Beans – It wouldn’t be Pasta e Fagioli without the fagioli! As you might have guessed, fagioli means beans. I like to use dark red kidney beans and also white kidney beans, great northern beans, or cannellini beans.
- Beef Stock – You can use beef stock, beef broth, or even chicken broth or vegetable broth in a pinch.
- Spices – The spice mix for this recipe includes oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper. If you want to expand on the flavor profile, then consider adding garlic powder, garlic cloves, basil, thyme, or a few bay leaves.
- Tabasco Sauce – Tabasco sauce adds a little bit of spice and also a depth of flavor to this soup.
- Prego Sauce – Prego Traditional tomato sauce is our favorite for this recipe.
- Ditalini Pasta – Ditalini pasta is the pasta that Olive Garden uses, but you can use other shapes like small shells, wagon wheels, or elbow macaroni noodles. Cook the pasta to just barely al dente, as it will soften in the soup.
- Optional Toppings – This soup is perfect as is, but I like to top my bowl with grated parmesan cheese, parsley flakes, and red pepper flakes.
Tips for Pasta e Fagioli Soup
- This pasta Fagioli recipe makes a LOT of soup (approximately 20, 1 cup servings) so it’s a terrific recipe for feeding a crowd or if you like leftovers for lunches. It’ll stay fresh in the refrigerator for about a week.
- This soup also freezes well, so store in freezer safe containers or Ziploc bags in the freezer for up to two months.
- Make sure to use a large crock pot, or feel free to cut the recipe in half.
- Pasta e Fagioli is delicious served with some crusty bread, our delicious Italian Cheesy Bread recipe, or one of my favorites, cornbread. Our Cake Mix Cornbread is goes perfectly with this soup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! You will need a very large pot, or you will need to half the recipe. Brown and drain the beef, and add it, along with all other ingredients besides the pasta, to a large pot. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then turn heat to low bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender. Cook pasta according to package directions and add to soup before serving.
They are the same! Pasta Fazool is a nickname for pasta e fagioli that comes from New York Italians.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to three months.
Yes, you just need to sub out the pasta for a gluten-free pasta.
Yes, this soup is hearty, filling, and loaded with protein and fiber.
What to Serve with Pasta Fagioli Soup
When we make Pasta e Fagioli soup we like to pretend that it’s unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden. This soup is delicious with our Easy Breadsticks, Garlic Bread, or Breadtwists and Italian Salad or Wedge Salad.
More Slow Cooker Soups to Try
How to make Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup Copycat
Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup
Video
Equipment
- Crockpot Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 shredded carrots
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (16-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
- 1 (16-ounce) can white kidney beans, drained
- 4 cups beef stock
- 3 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
- 1 ½ tablespoons dried parsley, plus more for garnish
- 1 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
- 1 (24-ounce) bottle Prego Traditional pasta sauce
- 8 ounces ditalini pasta
- Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet. Drain fat. Â
- Add beef and all ingredients except the pasta and Parmesan cheese into a large slow cooker. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.
- Before serving, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add to soup. Â
- Serve in bowls topped with Parmesan cheese and parsley if desired.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe!! I have make it several times for my family and its a hit every time. My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and he loves it! Highly recommend trying it for yourself!
WOW, this is fantastic. I will definitly make it again. My husband loved it too.
I’ve used this recipe for many years, and it’s absolutely wonderful. I angle-cut my carrots though because our local Olive Garden manager had them done that way. She got promoted and the new manager shreds them, and he’s stingy, so try it with the carrot medallions; it’s prettier and holds up better to long cooking with the larger size. I do add minced garlic and a bit of sugar to offset the tomato’s acidity, also. I freeze large quantities of my soup in quart jars, and it is wonderful to have on hand. I make large amounts in a stock pot; not in my little crock pot. We like to let it sit in the refrigerator overnight for the flavors to meld better.
This was fantastic! I made it tonight and my whole family was impressed. I found that garlic salt and parmesan were great additives. Try with a side of spinach and feta stuffed crescent rolls!
I didn’t have a big enough crockpot but I have a huge stockpot so I made this soup in that. I had to improvise a little because I didn’t have two cans of tomatoes on hand. I had one can of tomatoes and I had a can of tomato sauce so I used those instead. I cooked the pasta to al dente then I added all ingrediants to the stockpot and heated until boiling. Then I reduced heat to simmer and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes then served it. It was great this way because we were able to have it for lunch rather than waiting for dinner. It is amazing! I love that it makes a ton because I will be freezing individual servings to bring to work! Thanks, another great pinterest find!
Yeah this makes a TON! I have it cooking for dinner right now- had to transfer some of it to a second, smaller slow cooker because I had a little more than 2 lbs of meat to use, and it absolutely would have overflowed my 6 qt crockpot. Excited to try it!
I make a version of this soup also-one I found online years ago. It calls for mostly the same ingredients-but in addition, a can of v8, and 1T of white vinegar. I worked at the OG for several years, and I love that soup! 🙂
Just made this recipe for myself and my three roommates. Everyone loved it! Like others previously stated, this makes a HUGE amount of soup. I only used 1lb of beef. Next time I will cut the recipe in half for sure!
Thank you for posting this. Made this for dinner tonight. Even my kid (who is picky) loved this.
This is fabulous! If you don’t want to make it in a crock pot, just throw it in a pot on the stove! I doubled the recipe and before adding the pasta halved it, so I could freeze part of it!
Have this in the crockpot right now cooking on high so I can have it in time for lunch! I cut the recipie in half, I dont have a huge crockpot and even cut in half its almost overflowing. Looks delicious. I love soups and my husband is not a fan so I end up eating a whole pot of soup by myself. This will be perfect for lunches this week. I go to a lot of large potlucks where it would be perfect to make the full sized recipie, as soon as I get a bigger crockpot!
Wow, we loved it! It’s still hot in October in the Bay Area but I went ahead and made this soup today. We will definitely make this soup again.
A generous Tablespoon of white vinegar brings out the flavors, much as salt would, and adds a spark to this soup.
This soup was a huge hit when I served it earlier in the month. While it does make a lot, my crock pot was completely empty after 7 adults, two children and a teen enjoyed seconds. I’ll be making this again as soon as the weather turns chilly.
Made this tonight and it was GREAT! I didn’t have all 5 tsp of parsley, so I used italian seasoning and it still came out awesome – and I love that there’s no added salt – doesn’t even need it!
Love love love this just wish there was done nutrient facts posted…
Does this need any added salt? I don’t see salt on the ingredient list. I am making this tonight.
You can add some salt to taste if you think it needs it.
Made this minus the meet and fell in love all over again!!! 🙂
This is by far the best soup that I have ever made! Thanks for the simple crockpot recipe…..
This looks terrific! I love Olive Garden’s soup. Guess what’s on the menu this week? Thanks!