Pasta e Fagioli is a classic Italian comfort dish made with pasta, beans, vegetables, and savory herbs simmered in a rich broth. #food #italianfood #foodie #dinner #pastafagioli #pasta #soup #italianamerican #italiancooking
Pasta bazul. Come with me guys and I’ll show you how to make it. Ando, let’s go back. Way back. It’s Friday or Saturday night and you’re a kid and grandma’s cooking dinner. What is she making? She’s making pasta bazul. Remember guys, pasta vazul. A lot of you might know it as pasta fajoli, but we called it pasta bazul. It was a peasant dish, a delicious pasta and bean dish that I’m going to show you how to make tonight. I have 4 oz of penetta that I’m going to start with. I’m going to put it right in my pan. And I’m going to render that down until it gets nice and crispy. If you don’t have penetta, you can use bacon. If you want, you can leave it out completely and make this a complete vegetarian dish. Nice and browned. And it really rendered out a lot of that fat. And that’s the fat that we’re going to use to cook the o onions, carrots, and celery in. We don’t even need olive oil because that’s what we’re going to be using. So, I have one medium onion, two carrots, and two stalks of celery going in. And we’ll cook that down for 3 to 5 minutes. I’m also adding in four cloves of garlic that I chopped up. This has been cooking for about 5 or 6 minutes. Now, it’s time to add the tomatoes. But meanwhile, I have my water on boiling for my pasta. So, get that going cuz this goes pretty fast. I have whole peeled tomatoes, a 28 oz can here going in. Push those up a little bit. Okay, I’m just going to chop them up just like this. Tomatoes are in. I wish you could smell my house right now. Model Nummy. It is unbelievable. Time for the cantalini beans. You can use kidney beans. I like canolini beans. I have one can, the small can. I think it’s 15 ounce. One is rinsed, one is not. Now it’s time for some chicken broth. I put some in the can just to get the rest of the residual tomato out. And I’m going to put the whole box of chicken broth right in here. I have a tiny piece of uh Parmesan rind here that I’m going to throw in. That’s all I had, so I’m going to throw it in anyway. I have some fresh oregano from my garden. I have a video that I dried it. And now I’m going to put about a teaspoon of oregano right into there. Pepper. Going to taste it for the salt because we have a lot of salty things in here already. the penetta, the broth, and um the cheese. So, let’s give it a chance. And we’re going to taste it before we add any more salt. My water’s boiling. So, now I’m going to salt my water. Go around a few times. Don’t forget, it needs to taste like the Mediterranean Sea. I have some fresh basil from my garden. Just picked it and cleaned it. And now going to just tear it up and throw it right in with the pasta visible. Going to be using dalini pasta. They are tiny little tubular shaped pastas. They’re pretty traditional for pasta razul, but you can use whatever you have. My grandmother, she used to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that, whatever she had left over, and she’d throw it in the pot just to get rid of those pieces. So, use whatever you have. This is what I have. I’m putting the whole pound in. I just tasted and I think it needs a little bit more salt. So, I’m going to go ahead and add some more salt to this. Here it is, guys. Beautiful dinner. So simple, so easy. Took me about 30 minutes. When our grandparents and parents made this, you know, they were probably tired. They came home from work, they just wanted something hearty and quick, and this was it. So, let’s give this a try. I always make my pasta separately because if you put the pasta in the uh pasta bazul, it’s going to absorb all the moisture and the water of the pasta bazul and you’re going to have nothing but a mushad mess. So, always keep it separated. Put your pasta at the bottom and take yourself a nice big ladle full of all this goodness. Put that right there. Look at that. Oh, now I must add some freshly grated Pecarino Romano on top. Now, don’t think I don’t have a nice hunk of Italian bread because I do. Let’s give this a try. Now, this looks very hot. The penetta just brings it to another level. I don’t think my grandmother used penetta, but I added that in and I think it’s just fantastic. So, this is a hearty, wonderful meal. Really wasn’t very hard to do. I know you guys can do this. Make this, guys. You’re going to be happy.
Dining and Cooking