Chef Angelo’s Pasta e Fagioli Soup Recipe
This pasta e fagioli soup is thick, creamy and packed with comforting Italian flavor. Chef Angelo Iorio’s unique Florence recipe combines five varieties of beans with savoy cabbage, carrots, onion and tomato passata to create a rich vegetable and bean base, finished with ditali rigati pasta and whole tender beans. Simple, hearty and satisfying, it’s Italian comfort food at its best.
Servings 3
Equipment
- 5 small-sized pots
- Large-sized pot
- Medium-sized pot
- knife
- Cutting board
- Metal spoon
- Ladle
- Spatula
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 kg / 2.2 lb dried black-eyed beans (for the base, + 150g to mix in)
- 1 savoy cabbage
- 3 white onions
- 5 carrots
- 5 L / 5.3 qt water
- 150 g Piattellini beans
- 150 g Black-eyed beans
- 150 g Black beans
- 150 g Borlotti beans
- 150 g Zolfini beans
- 1 L Tomato passata
- Extra virgin olive oil (as much as required)
- 300 g Ditali rigati pasta
Instructions
- Cook the 5 bean varieties separately in five pots of unsalted water for about 30 minutes: black-eyed beans, piattellini, black beans, borlotti and zolfini. These black-eyed beans are separate from the 1 kg / 2.2 lb used later for the blended base.
- Wash the savoy cabbage and carrots, and peel the onions and carrots. Quarter the cabbage and slice it into small pieces. Dice the onions and carrots into similar-sized pieces so they cook evenly.
- Pour a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil into a large pot and add the vegetables. Cook over low heat, stirring regularly, until softened.
- Add the 1 kg of dried, uncooked black-eyed beans to the softened vegetables, followed by the tomato passata and 5 liters of water. Stir to combine.
- Cook for about 1 hour. Stir regularly with a spatula, scraping along the sides to prevent sticking.
- Transfer 4-6 laddles of cooked mixture to a food processor and blend until smooth and thick. Pour the blended base into a medium-sized pot.
- Add one spoonful of each of the five cooked bean varieties to the blended base, including the separately cooked black-eyed beans. Stir gently to combine.
- Cook the ditali rigati in a separate pot of boiling water for approximately 6–7 minutes, checking the package instructions and tasting if al dente.
- Drain and add the pasta to the pot containing the bean and vegetable mixture. Stir until evenly combined.
Video
Notes
A Note About Chef Angelo's Restaurant-Sized Recipe
When I visited Chef Angelo at Ristorante Paoli in Florence, he was preparing pasta e fagioli the way he does in a busy Italian restaurant: in very large batches!
You might notice in the video that he prepares a huge pot of vegetables and beans but only takes a smaller portion of the creamy base to finish the dish with the five varieties of beans and pasta.
Now, unless you're planning to open your own Italian restaurant or feed the entire neighborhood, you probably won't need that much pasta e fagioli! The quantities listed in this recipe reflect Chef Angelo's restaurant-sized batch, so feel free to reduce them according to how many people you're cooking for. Just remember to adjust all the ingredients proportionally to keep those beautiful flavors balanced!