Pasta Fazool

It's still "soup weather" here - gray, cloudy and wet - so no better time than one of my favorite family recipes of pasta fazool. This is the ultimate comfort food (still in demand after the Super Bowl) and this dish always hits the spot on a rainy day. Needless to say, we ate this often when we lived in Seattle, one of the kids' favorite meals.  It's a one-dish meal, although we usually have a salad and bread with it. Our version is thicker than a lot of versions you might get in Italian restaurants where it is called Pasta Fagioli but I've always loved our home cooked version the best. I think the macaroni in this recipe causes it to be thicker because it continues to absorb the soup as it cooks but I like it that way. 

The Italian name means "pasta and beans" and was considered a peasant dish, made by those who could not afford expensive food with meat.  This is not an expensive dish at all but it is healthy with beans for protein, lots of veggies and very filling.  I've never accepted the excuse people give me as a dietitian that they can't afford healthy food, and believe me, I hear it a lot at work.  I agree that there is a lot of cheap "junk" food out there, but when people tell me they can't afford healthy food, they are really saying they don't have time to prepare healthy food, or it's a low priority in their lives.  I get that, I really do but please don't tell me you can't afford it.  Those are usually the same people who say "I can't afford organic food" when I recommend they eat foods in their natural state.  People don't even know what food in it's "natural state" means anymore.  It's getting harder and harder to educate people on good nutrition because so many people are out-of-touch with what real food is, as Michael Pollan wrote a whole book on this topic...In Defense of Food.  I know macaroni is not "in it's natural state" and it is considered "a processed food", another term that is thrown around a lot.  Nutrition is a very complicated science and it's always been hard to simplify it for people.  My goal has always been to prevent people from giving up in frustration. I want food to be enjoyable for people and uncomplicated.  So, if all else fails, I take another tip from Michael Pollan and say  "OK, just eat what your great-grandmother ate"... or, if you want pasta fazool, eat what the peasants ate.

I just have to add this excerpt from Michael Pollan's Food Rules.  

Imagine your great-grandmother (or grandmother, depending on your age) at your side as you roll down the aisles of the supermarket.  You're standing together in front of the dairy case.  She picks up a package of Go-GURT Portable Yogurt tubes - and hasn't a clue what this plastic cylinder of colored and flavored gel could possibly be.  Is it a food or is it toothpaste?  There are now thousands of foodish products in the supermarket that our ancestors simple wouldn't recognize as food.  The reasons to avoid eating such complicated food products are many, and go beyond the various chemical additives and corn and soy derivatives they contain, or the plastics in which they are typically packaged, some which are probably toxic.  Today foods are processed in ways specifically designed to get us to buy and eat more by pushing our evolutionary button - our inborn preferences for sweetness and fat and salt.  These tastes are difficult to find in nature but cheap and easy for the food scientist to deploy, with the result that food processing induces us to consume much more of these rarities than is good for us.  The great-grandma rule will help keep most of these items out of your cart. Note:  If your great-grandmother was a terrible cook or eater, you can substitute someone else's grandmother - a Sicilian or French one works particularly well.  LOVE IT.

You great-grandmother would LOVE Pasta Fazool, too.

Serves 6

1 lb. dried pinto beans

four and oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 large onion, chopped

4 stalks celery, sliced

2 medium carrots, sliced

1/2 cup butter

1 -28 oz. can tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2 10-1/2 oz. cans beef broth

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 Tbsp. basil

8 oz.(2 cups) macaroni shells

1.  Soak beans in cold water overnight.  If you don't have time or forgot to soak the beans, you can use "the quick method" by cooking the beans first.  Add beans to a pot with water covering the beans at least 2 inches.  Bring to a boil, then turn off and let sit for an hour. Proceed with the rest of the recipe. 

2.  Rinse and drain.

3.  Place beans in a large pot.  Add 2 Tbsp. flour and 3 Tbsp. oil and stir until beans are well coated.

4.  Add 2 quarts of warm water and garlic to pot. Cover and simmer for 1-1/4 hours.

5.  In a large skillet, saute onion, celery, and carrots in 2 Tbsp. butter for about 5 minutes.  

6.  Add tomatoes and parsley.  (I used a quart of our home canned tomatoes)  Cover and simmer 1 hour.

7.  Add water to prevent from sticking, if necessary.  After 1 hour, set aside and let cool.

8.  After beans have cooked for 1-1/4 hours, remove 3 cups (including the liquid) and set aside.

9.  Put remaining beans with the vegetables in a blender and puree, processing approx.  2 cups at a time, depending on how large or powerful your blender is. 

10. Once beans and vegetables are pureed, transport into a large pot.

11.  Add beef broth, reserved beans, salt, pepper and basil.  Simmer for 15 minutes.

12.  Meanwhile, cook macaroni in boiling, salted water until tender.  Drain.

13.  Add macaroni to soup.  Stir until mixed.

14.  Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired.  Good with salad and bread.