Pasta Fagioli, #Copycat Olive Garden-style #crockpot #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I know what you are saying: When is this poor woman going to get her oven back so she can get off the crockpot kick? For almost two months, I desperately wanted the answer to that question, too. (As of last week, I have one, yay!)
Meanwhile, the crockpot recipes continued…this time with a delicious knock-off of Olive Garden-style* pasta fagioli.


My version was lower sodium (you can read more about that below,) but quite spicy and delicious (she said modestly.)
Ingredients

1 1/2 pound ground beef
One large onion, chopped
Three large carrots, chopped
Four stalks of celery, sliced
One heaping teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
6 to 8 leaves of fresh basil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes and sauce
20 oz spaghetti sauce (I used Gia Russo's Hot Sicilian)
2 and ½ cups low sodium beef broth (or 3/5 box of regular broth and add some water)
1 cup Ditalini pasta
One can white or red kidney beans, low-sodium, rinsed
Fresh spinach, about 4 oz
Parmesan for grating on top

Brown the beef and drain grease.

Add the remaining ingredients to the crockpot, up to the point of the pasta.
Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.

During last 30 min on high or 1 hour on low, add pasta, beans and spinach.
Serve with crusty bread and grated Parmesan if you wish.

*Soup in restaurants is generally very salty. So naturally I made some adjustments to the recipes I saw on Pinterest.


This entire pot of soup contains roughly 3500 mg of sodium. There are probably 10 servings in the pot, so 350 mg per serving. (This is calculated from the tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, and beef broth. Read your labels carefully, as these ingredients vary greatly in sodium content. The celery, carrots, and spinach also contain naturally occurring sodium. Tabasco sauce, 35 mg per teaspoon. Ground beef, 450 mg per 1.5 lbs.)


Lucy writes the Key West food critic mysteries. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

Hearty Crockpot Bean Soup

Would you believe those big chunks are not potatoes?

The other day I read a blog complaining about the mushiness of canned beans. It's been a while since I bothered to cook anything with dried beans, so I thought I'd give it a shot. There's no question that dried beans cost a lot less than canned beans, and after eating this, you can bet my next batch of chili will be made with dried beans. I think they are better!

I used a variety of beans in this recipe, plus veggies, and apples. My grocery store had Texas style ribs (dark pork meat with no bones) on sale that I thought would hold up well to slow cooking. It's hot and hearty and oh-so-easy, not to mention fairly healthy! I felt spoiled and lazy since it all happened in the crock pot without much effort. Don't be fooled though, at the low setting, the beans really do take eight hours to cook

Hearty Crockpot Bean Soup

1/2 cup dried Northern beans
1/2 cup dried kidney beans

1/3 cup dried baby lima beans
2 1/2 to 3 pounds pork
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 apples, peeled, cored and quartered or diced
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 14.5 ounce cans chicken broth (use tomato can to measure)
2 14.5 ounce cans water
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2-3 cloves garlic

2 large leaves red Swiss chard chopped, including stems
1 10-ounce package peas

Wash the Northern beans and the kidney beans. Pick out any that look odd and remove all floaters. Put them in the crock pot (turned OFF) with six cups water to soak overnight.

In the morning, dump the water in the beans, rinse them and set aside. Place the meat in the bottom of the crock pot, and add the beans on top of the meat. Add everything else, except the Swiss chard and peas. Cook on low for seven hours and fifteen minutes.

Add the Swiss chard and frozen peas and cook another 45 minutes. Serve and enjoy!