Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta e Fagioli, or Pasta with Beans, is a pretty common dish in Napoli, from what I understood. (Since it was my first area, I'm not completely sure I understood everything I thought I did). And, really, it's simple to make and tastes pretty good. There are also many different ways to make it, so the possibilities are endless.

To make it, you'll need the following (or similar things):

• Pasta (any kind is fine, except long pastas (spaghetti, fettucine, etc), but I prefer either the Rigatoni or the Mezzi (half) Rigatoni. Farfalle would work, but mentally I can't bring myself to use them in this).
• Fagioli (beans, and lots of them. Well, not really; just a can or two. Here's where you can get creative. I prefer to use White Beans (no, I'm not a bean racist), and will sometimes throw in some Garbanzo Beans. From the various recipes I've seen on the internet, any type of bean can be used).
• Some Meat (some italian sausage really is the best here. I can't imagine making it with anything else).
• Olive Oil (Extra Virgin), 1-2 Tbls
• Garlic
• Tomato Sauce, 1 can (or use diced or crushed tomatoes. Maybe they'd be good in this.)
• Salt, Pepper, Basil, Parsley, Crushed Red Pepper, Vegetable Boullion, Oregano.

Start by browning the garlic in the olive oil (be sure to peel it first), then add the meat. As mentioned above, Italian Sausage really will be the best, here. There's not much else going into the meal, so you need some good flavor from the meat.

As the meat starts to cook, season it with the salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and vegetable boullion. Since you'll be cooking the pasta in with the sauce, you'll need to add a bit more salt than you normally would. Not a lot more, but enough that it just starts to taste a bit salty.

Just before it's fully cooked, add the parsley (get some on each piece of meat), basil (a tiny bit less than the parsley), and oregano (a little more than in my usual recipes, but you still just want to use the sprinkle side of the shaker, not the spoon side).

Add the beans to the meat. If you're using an assortment of beans, you may need to put them in at different times. Garbanzo beans need about 5-10 minutes more cooking than the white beans. It's probably better to stick to one kind of bean until you're more familiar with how the beans cook.

Let the beans simmer with the meat for at least 10 minutes. I like to smash some of the beans, too. Mostly because I get bored, but also because it adds more body to the finished product.

After the beans have cooked a bit, add in the can of tomato sauce (or crushed or diced tomatoes).

Let the mixture cook for awhile. The longer you can cook it, the more flavorful it will be in the end. While it's cooking, you can start boiling a separate pot of water. Do NOT salt that water! You'll be adding the water into the sauce, and cooking the pasta in the sauce. You should have salted the meat a bit more than usual, and the sauce should taste just a little bit salty so it can transfer into the unsalted pasta.

Pour the pasta into the sauce, then pour in some of the water from the other pan. You want the water level to be just below the tops of the pasta. It's tough, without practice, to get the water level right. Just remember that you can always add more water, but you can't add more pasta. There should be some pasta sticking out of the water, but each piece should be mostly underwater.

Keep the separate pot of water boiling while you boil the sauce, just in case you need to add more.

Most of the water should boil out just about the time the pasta's cooked. You want to leave it a little moist, but not runny (even though there are variations where you can add a bunch of vegetables, too, and make it more runny like a soup).

Grate some cheese over the top of it and serve it. It'll feed more people than the same amount of pasta normally would because the beans make it a bit heavier. It's a great winter meal (so I don't know why I waited 'til now to post it), but adding vegetables and leaving it runny would be a good variation for the summer.
Enjoy.