Eat Voraciously: Pasta fagioli ~ INFO IMAGES

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Here's what's for dinner tonight.

By G. Daniela Galarza

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Not only is it Eat Voraciously's one-year anniversary, it's also 2/22/2022! Celebrate with a Washington Post subscription deal: Get your first four weeks free, and then pay $22 for your first year. That unlocks every recipe in our archive as well as every news story we publish.

Pasta fagioli

I was a child of the 1980s and 1990s, who grew up in the suburbs outside of a large midwestern city. At least partially because I was not from an Italian family, my first introduction to Italian food was by way of Olive Garden.

Getting to go to Olive Garden was a treat. It meant breadsticks that were warm and almost as squishy as Wonder Bread. It meant endless salad bowls. It meant pasta fagioli.

Also known as pasta e fagioli, the combination of pasta and soft beans in a tomato broth was my favorite thing to order at Olive Garden. It had vegetables, too, but little kid me picked around them to get to the pasta and beans. Pasta and beans! So good, so warming, so easy.

So that's dinner tonight, thanks to this Ellie Krieger recipe, a smart and streamlined version of the classic Italian dish.

Today's recipe

Photos by Stacy Zarin Goldberg for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post

Pasta Fagioli

If you need to skip the onion and garlic >> use an infused oil instead.
No zucchini? >> Use celery, kale or spinach.
Cannellini are nice here >> but almost any smallish bean works instead, including navy, pinto or borlotti. Use chickpeas to make pasta e ceci, the Roman version of this dish.
Can't have tomatoes? >> Use more broth instead.

Make Ahead: The dish can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

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Servings: 4 (Makes 6 cups)
Total time: 30 mins

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped (about 4 ounces)
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
15 ounces canned, low-sodium cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
14 1/2 ounces canned, no-salt-added diced tomatoes and their juices
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 large or 2 medium zucchini (about 12 ounces total), quartered lengthwise and then cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 ounces dried whole-wheat elbow macaroni or other similarly shaped pasta
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Steps

1. In a medium pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Stir in the onion and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, just until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

2. Add the beans, the tomatoes and their juices, the broth, salt and pepper to the pot and stir to combine. Once the mixture begins to simmer, stir in the zucchini and pasta. Bring to a boil; then reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, about 12 minutes (if the pasta is thicker than elbow macaroni, it may need a few more minutes).

3. Serve hot, sprinkled with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Adapted from "Weeknight Wonders: Delicious, Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less," by Ellie Krieger (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). Tested by Lisa Cherkasky.

Nutrition information per serving: Calories: 280; Total Fat: 11 g; Saturated Fat: 3 g; Cholesterol: 10 mg; Sodium: 490 mg; Carbohydrates: 35 g; Dietary Fiber: 8 g; Sugars: 7 g; Protein: 14 g.

🎂 Today is officially the one-year anniversary of Eat Voraciously! But I've decided to mark the occasion with a special new recipe on Thursday. Stay tuned for that! Meanwhile, as we start a whole new year of eating voraciously together, what's one thing you'd like to learn to cook or bake this year? 🎂