Even A Perfect Recipe Needs a Tweak – Pasta e Fagioli

Many years ago, my wife’s colleague from work taught me to make her family tomato sauce. It was the recipe I had been looking for, hearty, flavorful, and not too soupy over pasta. I finally had a perfect, homemade pasta sauce, and I cooked it as she taught me for years. But over time I was unable to let it be. I added pesto in place of simple basil leaves, because I had it ready to go in my freezer. The addition of browned ground beef made it more substantial and flavorful. And I added extra grated cheese, hidden as it cooks, to boost the savoriness. Prior to posting the recipe for Donna’s Sauce on this blog, I sent it over for her approval. She gave it her blessing, declaring that while it was based on her family recipe, I had made it my own.

Even my own family recipes evolve over time. For example, I always made guacamole the same way since I was young, as taught to me by my father. But lately, I’ve been adding finely diced fresh jalapeño, in addition to pickled jalapeños from a jar. While the acidity from the pickle vinegar is essential, fresh peppers make it more interesting.

Recipes get tweaked all the time. Sometimes an ingredient is unavailable or inconvenient, and the replacement works just as well, if not better. Maybe you simply don’t like one of the components, so it gets left out, or a satisfactory substitute is found. Perhaps your tastes are somewhat different from those of the recipe developer, so you base your recipe on theirs, but tweak it enough to match your preferences. There are a million reasons to modify a recipe, no matter how flawless the starting point.

Some sources are known for their perfect recipes. I would include Cook’s Illustrated magazine, part of the America’s Test Kitchen group, among these. They rigorously test recipes, iteration after iteration, until they have found what they deem faultless results. Yet before publishing, they send each recipe out to a series of unpaid testers to confirm that it works for the home cook. I have been lucky enough to do some testing for Cook’s Illustrated on occasion and have found their recipes are some of the best available.

Several years ago, I was looking to make Pasta e Fagioli (aka Pasta Fazool or Pasta Fasul), the hearty Italian pasta and bean soup. A logical place to start was Cook’s Illustrated, figuring what they offered would be perfect. It was delicious, yet over time I added rosemary and thyme for a bit more herbal flavor. I included the liquid from cans of cannellini beans, and reduced the water to make a thicker, creamier broth. And I replaced the large can of diced tomatoes with a few tablespoons of tomato paste, preferring a smoother option rather than having large chunks of tomato. I’d rather the flavor be hidden as the paste browns and then dissolves, supplying a layer of umami without the distraction of big pieces.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to call this recipe for Pasta e Fagioli my own, I used an excellent starting point and modified it to match my own preferences. Sometimes even a perfect recipe needs a tweak.

Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta and Bean Soup)

makes about 2½ quarts, 6 to 8 servings, about 1 hour

1 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more for drizzling

3 oz. pancetta (about 3, ¼-inch thick slices), diced fine

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, pressed, minced, or grated

1 tsp. dried oregano

¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

3 anchovy fillets, minced to paste

3 Tbsp. tomato paste

2 cans cannellini beans, with their liquid

1 Parmesan cheese rind (roughly 5×2 inches)

few sprigs fresh rosemary or ½ tsp. minced leaves

few sprigs fresh thyme or ½ tsp. minced leaves or dried

½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1 quart low-sodium chicken broth

8 oz. ditalini pasta

salt, if needed

water, as needed (up to 2 cups)

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

2 oz. (1 cup) grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add pancetta. Cook, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Add onions and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, anchovies, and tomato paste. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add beans with cooking liquid and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Tie the rosemary and thyme sprigs with kitchen twine and add to the pot, along with the cheese rind and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer to blend flavors, 10 minutes.
5. Add chicken broth. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook until just tender, about 9 minutes. (Refer to package directions.)
6. Discard cheese rind and rosemary and thyme sprigs. Taste, and add salt if needed. Add water to reach desired thickness. Stir in 3 tablespoons parsley.
7. Ladle into individual bowls. Top with a drizzle of olive oil if desired, extra parsley, and grated parmesan cheese.

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