How to Make the Most Comforting Pasta e Fagioli

[Music] today we're making pasta fajoul or as dean martin might say pasta fazool now its origins from italy are humble ones the dish was cobbled together with leftover scraps or ingredients that people had on hand and lawmen's here he's got a great hearty version to share with us that's right bridgette pasta fazool is italian american comfort food at its best now our favorite versions of this dish were porky so we're going to add a lot of pancetta about two ounces i like where you're going with this now i'm going to cut this fine so that when it renders it all but disappears into the soup pancetta is basically cured unsmoked bacon and you can buy the big chunks of pancetta at the deli counter don't buy the pre-sliced pancetta because you won't be able to get these tiny little pieces like lamin's doing there now i imagine something like bacon regular american bacon would add too much of a smoky flavor to this exactly so it doesn't need to be perfect we just want it pretty small so now i'm going to use one of my favorite kitchen utensils the bench scraper just to pick this stuff up put it right back in the bowl and now i'm just going to finish cutting the aromatics okay so this one onion left cut just going to cut it down the middle just horizontal cuts and then little vertical keep my fingers away from the blade we don't want that soup yeah pasta fagiol translates to pasta and beans not pasta and fingers now again it doesn't need to be perfect we just want it to be all the same size there's that bench scraper again that's great because it gathers up all the ingredients but you're not dulling your knife right exactly so now our oil is nice and heated now we're just going to add all our aromatics and the pinch added to the saucepan so we're adding the two onions chopped fine we'll switch it two carrots peeled and shop fine this is one celery rib chopped fine three-quarter teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper great now we're just going to cook this for about 10 minutes until the vegetables soften the texture of the soup is key we didn't want something that was too thin or too stodgy we're just going to add a 15 ounce can of cannellini beans and one cup of water we're going to puree this until it's smooth about 30 seconds now we found that when we added all the whole beans to the soup it was too thin but when we added the pureed bean mixture that we just made right here the texture was silky and it gave it a nice body so now we just need to wait for the vegetables to soften [Music] so it's been about 10 minutes the vegetables should be softened and you can tell because the onions are nice and translucent but you're not looking for a lot of browning at this point right no browning at all actually okay so now i'm going to add two tablespoons of tomato paste now some of the recipes that we came across call for canned tomatoes now we tried canned diced tomatoes but the soup ended up being too chunky because they never broke down because of that additive that's in the canned tomatoes but for a deep tomato flavor we found that tomato paste worked best and we're going to brown the tomato paste to deepen the flavor further so you're going to get caramely nose you're going to get some of that sweetness from the tomato but not too much but also it's super savory there's a lot of that umami that savoriness so now i'm going to add four garlic cloves minced and a quarter teaspoon of pepper flake a little heat in there yes and we want to cook this for about two minutes until it's fragrant so it's been two minutes now i can add our four cups of chicken broth and i'm going to add another can of candelini beans 15 oz can and this nice bean puree so i'm going to bring this to a boil over medium heat and then reduce the heat to medium low to simmer so the flavors will melt okay bridgette it's been 10 minutes and the flavors have meld nicely we're just gonna bring this up to a boil now this is when you add the pasta to the fuzzy wool we're going to add one cup of dittolina pasta right to the soup base now we're going to cook this until it's al dente about 12 minutes stirring occasionally to break up the pasta so doesn't clump together okay and could you use another small pasta like macaroni or something like that so any small pastas exactly okay [Music] it's been about 12 minutes i'm going to test the pasta see if it's done got my fingers crossed perfect so i'm gonna take it off the heat now the soup isn't done just yet we're gonna add half a cup of chopped basil now you wanna chop your basil at the end so it doesn't oxidize and you still retain that fresh flavor and it's going to be a half a cup of chopped basil stir that in now i have one cup of grated parm now that's going to add a lot of richness to it usually i reserve a little parmesan at the table but i like it as an ingredient i got good news for you i'm gonna add some parmesan at the end and a little extra virgin olive oil okay now bridgette this is what you've been waiting for we're ready yes that's so true it's so pretty i almost don't want to cover it with cheese but oh okay if i have to and i'm going to give you a little drizzle of oil okay i mean look at the texture of this it is brothy but there is body in there what's that pureed beans exactly speaking of beans the whole beans are nice and creamy you'll notice that little bit of heat in the back end from the pepper flake i'm digging the pancetta too and everything's cooked perfectly the onions the carrots the celery nice and soft and they're almost falling apart in the soup and then that hit of basil right at the end thanks lamin this was absolutely a perfect pasta facial you're very welcome well for a rich hearty and easy pasta fazool at home start with a base of sauteed pancetta and onion add tomato paste and garlic and cook until fragrant for soup with body puree one can of cannellini beans with water then add to the pot along with chicken broth and one unprocessed can of beans add detalini and cook until al dente then stir in fresh basil and parmesan drizzle olive oil all over the soup and serve so from cook's country a rich bright and hearty pasta fazool thanks for watching cook's country from america's test kitchen so what'd you think leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say hi now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later alligator

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 132,917

Rating: 4.916822 out of 5

Keywords: pasta, pasta e fagioli, soup, italian food, cooking, cooks country, americas test kitchen

Id: 8EYgUXRAN7s

Length: 6min 57sec (417 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020