Pasta Fazool

When we’d visit Julian’s dad in Miami years ago, the question of what to have for dinner would inevitably be asked. Lenny’s stock answer: “Pasta fazool.” He liked the sound of the dish. There was also an Olive Garden a block away from his condo, although he didn’t like pasta fazool when he tried it.

I had another hankering for soup, so I decided to make pasta fazool. (The proper spelling is pasta e fagiole, but it always comes out as pasta fazool in America. I riffed off a recipe I found in Nancy Verde Barr’s We Called It Macaroni. I substituted canned cannellini beans for cranberry beans and elbow macaroni for ditalini. I frizzled some pancetta, then sautéed onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and bell pepper. A quart of broth went in, along with the beans. Finally, the elbows were cooked in the soup. I served the soup with fresh basil torn in at the table. I think Lenny would have approved.