Beans, beans, the magical fruit!

Strangely, from what I hear about most other kids, my boys LOVE beans!  I am not talking about green beans, although they love those too, but rather kidney beans and black beans and even chick peas (I am not even sure a chickpea is a bean, but anyhow I digress).

One of our family's favorite bean recipes is pasta and bean soup and because it is still so cold and miserable outside  I thought I would have the boys help me out and make some for our dinner.  This recipe originally came from a cookbook we have by Rose Reisman, I really like a number of her recipes, and the rest of the family does too.  I have made a couple of tweaks but it is still pretty true to the original.

I thought to make everything a little easier I would prep some on the ingredients.    

The boys found their aprons to put on, quickly found a spot and then promptly started fighting over who was closer to the soup pot, seriously?!

We carefully sautéed the onions, celery, carrots and garlic.

At this point the boys gave up and decided they were going to watch Transformers...leaving me to finish the soup.  One thing I have to say is that this soup is so easy to make.  It has ingredients we almost always have on hand in our house and from start to finish this soup only takes about 45 minutes.  Best of all this soup, like many things, tastes even better the next day!

So my little helpers abandoned me, but I finished the soup off.

Yummy dinner for a chilly spring night.  My boys each finished their entire bowl, and so did I!

Here is the recipe if you would like to try making it at home.  I have substituted rice pasta in on several occasions with great success.

Pasta and Bean Soup (Fagioli)

Ingredients:

2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/3 cup chopped celery
2 tsp. minced garlic
4 cups chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz.)
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
Dash salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cups canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup small shell pasta

Directions:

Add olive oil to large non-stick saucepan and place over medium heat.  Saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic for five minutes.

Stir in the stock, tomatoes, sugar, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper and 2 cups of the kidney beans.  Mash the remaining 1 cup of kidney beans and stir into mixture.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the pasta.  Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender but firm.  Ladle into individual bowls and serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top.

Enjoy!