Pasta e Fagioli Soup

I love love this soup from Olive Garden and feel like this is a delicious match.  I found this recipe from Brittney Allenbach pg. 80 from my MBASA favorites cookbook.  Once I saw the name of the recipe and how people rave about her soup and want more and that it resembles Olive Garden's I wanted to try it.  I think it's more soupy than taco soup, better than minestrone (like the meat), and a fun chili variation...a new easy fav.  I also love how you dump the cans in vs. need any draining!
enjoy


Ingredients:
1 lb. Italian Sausage, 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, julienne
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.)
1 can red kidney beans, with liquid (15 oz)
1 can great northern beans, with liquid (15 oz) [Yes there is such a thing ~]
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)
1 can of V8 juice (12 oz get reduced sodium) [I couldn't find and used regular]
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups of water or more depending on thickness
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil [I used dried but I like how the pic above showed fresh basil the best!]
1/2 tsp. pepper [guessed and used my cracked pepper grinder]
1/2 tsp. thyme [big stand out flavor - make sure yours is fresh mine may have been over 5 years old I'm embarrassed to say - next time using fresh thyme]
couple of dashes of cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce
1/4 lb. ditalini pasta (they look like 1/4 of a macaroni noodle)

Parmesan cheese to top
bread to go with it :)


Cook and drain off fat from beef and sausage.  Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic.  Saute 10 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients except for pasta and simmer for 1 hour (or crockpot all day).  Cook pasta until almost tender (about 6 min.) add to soup and simmer 10-15 min. more.

enjoy

loved the look of this pot of soup - although I used a stovetop pan perhaps I'll do this on my stovetop next round~