Recipe: Pasta Fagioli in the Crock Pot

Holy Moly. That's all I can say about this recipe I have for you today.
I know many of you were waiting for this yummy post, so let me get right into it!

It's another one from the crock pot lady over at A Year of Slow Cooking and it's a great one!

Pasta fagioli in the crock pot--this recipe has a slight kick to it (nothing too spicy, just a little hint of something) that soaks in the longer this soup sits.

This isn't a recipe you'd make before leaving for work because the prep takes a bit more than dumping everything together. It's perfect for making on a Sunday afternoon so you have dinner ready for that night, and quite a bit of leftovers for the next day (or days).

What You Need:

-6 qt crock pot

-1 lb lean ground beef

Imagine salt, pepper and oregano are in the picture

-2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (we did no salt added cans to take away some of the sodium)

-4 cups (32 oz) beef broth
-about 1 cup of dry pasta

-26 oz pasta sauce

-1 can kidney beans

-1 can small white beans

-about 1 cup of carrots (or slightly more if you like)

-about 2-3 stalks of celery (or more if you like)

-1/2 large red onion

-1 Tablespoon of Tabasco sauce

-2 teaspoons oregano

-1/4 tsp pepper

-1/2 tsp salt

What You Do:

1. Brown the meat and then drain it well. Set it aside to cool.

 2. Chop up the carrots, celery and onion. Add it to the bottom of the crock pot.

3. Drain and rinse the cans of beans. Add them to the crock pot.

4. Add in the tomatoes, with the juices.

Im not sure why these look like neon tomatoes in the picture.
 I swear, they were totally not radioactive.

5. Add in the pasta sauce, beef broth, oregano, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

6. Finally, add in the ground beef and stir everything to combine it.

7. Set the crockpot to LOW for 8 hours, or HIGH for 4 hours. About an hour before it's done, add in the dry pasta (I used more than one cup of dry pasta in mine--closer to 1 1/2 cups). Cook for another hour until the pasta is tender.

Serve with Parmesan cheese if you have it.

(Try it with the grated parmesan--like what you'd put on spaghetti-- instead of the shredded like
 I have in this picture. It gets pretty stringy with this kind of cheese.)

This made two meals for dinner for us, and 5 servings worth of leftovers. Possibly more if you don't go back for seconds *cough cough...MG!*

It's good. Pinky promise. 

Would I lie to you??? :)