Pasta Fagioli Recipe (Olive Garden Copycat)

If you love Olive Garden’s Pasta e Fagioli, this is the version to make at home. It has that same thick tomato-beef broth with lean ground beef, tender vegetables, two kinds of beans, and ditalini pasta, but it’s easy to make ahead and portion for the week.

This Pasta Fagioli recipe is hearty enough for dinner, but I especially love it for meal prep. I keep the pasta separate from the soup so it doesn’t get mushy, which also makes the soup much easier to freeze in individual portions for later.

It has also become a longtime reader favorite, and I’ve heard more than a few times it tastes even better than the Olive Garden’s version.

Quick Look at This Recipe

• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
• Servings: 8-10
• Method: Stovetop
• Perfect For: Make-ahead lunches, family meals, weekly meal prep, and freezer cooking
• Flavor & Texture: Thick, savory, tomato-rich, and hearty with tender vegetables, beans, ground beef, and pasta

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this Pasta Fagioli, along with a few of my notes on what I use and what works best. You’ll find the full ingredient list with exact amounts in the recipe card below.

• Olive oil. Use this to sauté the vegetables and start building the flavor base of the soup.
• Carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. Chop everything fairly small so the vegetables soften evenly and you get a little bit in every spoonful. If I know I’m making this during the week, I’ll often chop the vegetables ahead of time so that part is already done. You can also use pre-chopped carrots, celery, onion, and even jarred garlic if that makes the recipe easier to get on the table.
• Oregano, basil, and thyme. These dried herbs give the broth that classic Italian flavor. I like to let them cook with the vegetables for a minute or two before adding the liquid so the flavor has a chance to come out.
• Lean ground beef. I usually use 90–95% lean ground beef. You still get that rich beef flavor without a lot of extra grease. I have used higher-fat ground beef before, but if you do, drain off the excess fat before adding the broth and tomato ingredients so the soup doesn’t get greasy.
• Tomato paste, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Using all three gives the soup a deeper tomato flavor and the thick consistency that makes Pasta Fagioli feel almost like a cross between soup and chili.
• Beef broth. Beef broth gives the soup the best savory flavor with the ground beef and tomato base. Chicken or vegetable broth will work if that’s what you have, but beef broth is my first choice here.
• Red and white kidney beans. I use both because I like the extra texture and heartiness. White kidney beans are also commonly sold as cannellini beans.
• Ditalini pasta. Ditalini is the classic small pasta shape for this soup, but small shells or elbow macaroni work too. I strongly recommend cooking the pasta separately and adding it to each bowl when you serve it. That one little step makes a huge difference if you plan to keep leftovers or freeze the soup.
• Parmesan cheese. Freshly grated Parmesan is perfect on top right before serving

How to Make Olive Garden Pasta Fagioli (step-by-step)

Step 1: Sauté the vegetables. Heat the olive oil in a 5 1/2-quart Dutch oven or large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent and the vegetables are starting to soften. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant.

Step 2: Bloom the seasonings. Stir in the oregano, basil, and thyme and cook for another 1–2 minutes. Giving the dried herbs a minute in the hot pan before adding the liquid helps bring out more flavor.

Step 3: Add the tomato paste and ground beef. Stir the tomato paste into the vegetables until everything is evenly coated. Add the ground beef and salt, then cook until the beef is no longer pink, breaking it into small pieces as it cooks. If you’re using a higher-fat ground beef, drain off the excess grease before moving on.

Step 4: Add the tomatoes, broth, and beans. Pour in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beef broth, red kidney beans, and white kidney beans. Stir everything together.

Step 6: Add the pasta when serving. Cook the ditalini separately according to the package directions. Add the amount of pasta you want to each bowl, then ladle the hot soup over the top. Give it a couple of stirs. Finish each bowl with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Special note: If you’re serving the entire pot to a crowd, you can absolutely stir the pasta right into the soup (this is what you see in the picture below). But if you’re making this for the week, keep the pasta separate. The pasta keeps absorbing broth as it sits and eventually gets soft and mushy. Keeping it separate gives you much better leftovers and makes freezing easier too.

Expert Tips

• Keep extra broth nearby. This soup gets thicker as it sits, especially after a day or two in the refrigerator. A splash of beef broth brings it right back to the consistency you want.
• Prep the vegetables ahead. If chopping is the part that slows you down, do it earlier in the week and store the vegetables in the refrigerator until you’re ready to cook.
• Make the pasta fresh when you can. If I’m freezing the soup, I don’t freeze the pasta with it. I make fresh pasta when I’m ready to eat the soup, and the texture is so much better.

Variations & Swaps

• Use ground turkey. Ground turkey works if you want a lighter option. The flavor is a little different because ground beef gives the soup more of that classic Olive Garden taste, but it’s still very good.
• Add Italian sausage. This was actually my husband’s suggestion, and it does adds great flavor. Add about 1/4–1/2 pound of Italian sausage along with the beef. Mild, medium, or hot all work depending on how much heat you want. If you want the closest Olive Garden-style flavor, stick with ground beef only.
• Add some heat. Stir in 1/4–1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.
• Make it gluten-free. The soup base can easily be gluten-free – just double-check your broth and use a gluten-free pasta. Gluten-free ditalini can be hard to find, so I usually recommend a small shell. Jovial is one of my favorite gluten-free pasta brands.
• Add more vegetables. Bell peppers, carrots, spinach, kale, or other hearty vegetables can all work. Just pay attention to cooking time. Carrots and peppers need more time, while spinach or kale can go in closer to the end. You may also need a little extra broth as you add more vegetables.
• Make it meatless. Leave out the beef, add another can of beans, and use vegetable broth. Many traditional pasta e fagioli recipes are built around pasta and beans without ground beef, so this variation still makes a lot of sense even though it won’t taste exactly like the Olive Garden version.
  

What to Serve With Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli is hearty enough to be a meal all by itself, but a simple green salad and warm bread are perfect on the side.

You do not need anything fancy here. Frozen garlic breadsticks, store-bought garlic bread, or a loaf of fresh bread from the bakery are all great for soaking up that thick tomato broth.

Make-Ahead, Meal Prep & Storage Tips

For the week: Let the soup cool, then transfer it to airtight glass meal prep containers and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Keep the cooked pasta in a separate container and add it after reheating the soup.

If you know you won’t finish it within 4 days, freeze the extra portions instead.

For the Freezer: This soup freezes really well as long as you leave the pasta out.

Let the soup cool completely, divide it into freezer-safe containers or Souper Cubes, leave a little room for expansion, and freeze for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to eat it, make a fresh batch of pasta and add it after the soup is hot.

How to Reheat. If you can thaw the soup overnight in the refrigerator, do it – it shortens the reheating time and makes the whole process faster.

But you do not have to thaw it first. You can reheat a frozen portion gently on the stovetop over low heat. Add a splash of broth, let the soup slowly loosen as it heats, and stir as it thaws. Individual frozen portions can also be reheated in the microwave in shorter intervals, stirring between each one.

Once the soup is hot, add the cooked pasta and Parmesan

Check out this tutorial for more detailed instructions on how to freeze soup.

Did You Make This Pasta Fagioli?

Have you tried this Pasta Fagioli Soup recipe yet? If so, I’d love to hear what you thought! Leave a rating and comment below and let me know how it turned out.