Pasta Fagioli Soup

This soup is a copycat version of Olive Garden's Pasta Fagioli soup. I hope you have had the pleasure of trying this soup, because it is delightful. Hearty, tasty, and also healthy! When I found this recipe, and saw that it didn't have any crazy, expensive ingredients- I knew I needed to try it. I am not a big soup lover, but this is one of my favorites (this, broccoli cheese soup from Black Eyed Pea and baked potato soup). I was so excited this turned out well. It tasted great and very similar to the soup at Olive Garden. I hope you enjoy this on a cold, drizzly day like we did.

Pasta Fagioli soup
*this makes a TON. I halved it- it fed us, and filled 4 tupperware bowls*
3 tsp. oil
2 lbs. ground beef (I used 1 lb.)
14 ounces carrots, slivered (I did 2 carrots)
12 ounces onions, chopped (I used one large onion)
14 ounces celery, diced (I used 5 or 6 ribs)
48 ounces diced canned tomatoes (I used one large can)
2 cups red kidney beans (I do not care for red kidney beans, so I used one can pinto)
2 cups white kidney beans (I used one can northern beans)
88 ounces beef stock (I used up all the beef stock I had in the house, about 40 ounces. It wasn't enough, it was more stew-like than soup-like.)
3 tsp. oregano
2 1/2 tsp. pepper
5 Tbsp. parsley, chopped (didn't have any)
1 1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
48 ounces spaghetti sauce (didn't have much, used the rest of my homemade sauce, maybe 12 ounces?)
8 ounces dry pasta shell macaroni (I used this much pasta, even though I halved evreything else, I like my soups with lots of pasta)

Brown the hamburger meat in large stock pot

Chopped onions, slivered carrots and diced celeryAdd onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes to meat and simmer for about 10 minutesDrain and rinse beans. Add to pot.Add beef stock, oregano, pepper, Tabasco, spaghetti sauce and noodles.These are the small noodles I used.
Simmer for about 45 minutes.
Enjoy!
I served this with some gruyere puff pastry muffins that I will post separately.
This post is long enough...