Fresh pasta e fagioli the Italian way
We’ve been making fresh pasta e fagioli. Every time we make a fresh pasta e fagioli, we receive a flood of comments from people wanting to tell us about their favourite recipes and fond memories of enjoying this dish with family.
Fresh pasta e fagioli is a quintessential Italian comfort dish. It is for this reason that we love making it.
Our fresh pasta e fagioli is based on the more traditional recipes that do not include meat, keeping the dish as simple as possible. The combination of a number of everyday ingredients are combined to create our recipe which is said to have originated in Veneto and Tuscany where it is served during the autumnal and winter months.
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As suggested from the title of our recipe, our fresh pasta e fagioli has been made totally from scratch and that includes the pasta.
Pasta e fagioli the Italian way: Serves 2 – 4
- 4.5 ounces (125 grams) anellini or any pasta broken into small pieces. We used our dried Tuscana Pici – cooked al dente, rinsed in cool water, drained and refrigerated
- 1 cup dried beans soaked in cold water overnight.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 medium clove garlic, roughly crushed and diced
- 1/2 medium red onion, diced
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 1/2 cups roasted tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- Once the beans have been soaked overnight, rinse them thoroughly, drain and set aside.
- In a large frying pan, warm the olive oil over a medium heat adding the garlic, onions, salt and pepper. Cook until the onions begin to caramelise.
- Add the butter, red wine and paprika and continue cooking until the wine has reduced at least by half. Check the seasoning.
- Add the tomato sauce, beans, thyme, basil and parsley then bring everything to a boil. Now reduce to a slow simmer, cover and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We used a Power Pressure Cooker and set it to cook beans for 40 minutes.
- Before adding the pasta, check the seasoning then add the pasta and allow it to warm through before serving.
- There are no rules as to how to serve your fresh pasta e fagioli, some people like it like a soup and others prefer it to be more like a pasta dish, as is the case in our house. Put some fresh bread and freshly grated Parmesan cheese on the table and enjoy!