✔ Updated · new copycat recipe with step photos, built from Olive Garden's own menu description
This copycat Olive Garden pasta e fagioli is a thick, beefy tomato soup with red and white beans and little tubetti pasta, simmered in under an hour. It tastes like the bowl from the soup, salad and breadsticks deal, and it makes enough for leftovers.
How Do You Make Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli at Home? (Quick Answer)
Brown 1 pound of ground beef with a diced onion to 160°F and drain the fat. Soften diced carrot, celery and garlic, then add fresh and crushed tomatoes, 4 cups of beef broth and oregano, basil and thyme and simmer 20 minutes. Add a can each of kidney and cannellini beans for 10 minutes, then ladle over separately cooked tubetti pasta.
At a glance
The one tip that matters: Cook the pasta in its own pot. Tubetti keeps drinking broth as it sits, so stirring it into the whole batch turns tomorrow's leftovers into a thick stew.
Why You'll Love This Soup
- Built from Olive Garden's own menu description white and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta in a savory broth.
- Hearty enough for dinner with beef, two kinds of beans and pasta in every spoonful.
- One pot, under an hour and most of that is hands-off simmering.
- Freezer friendly when you freeze the soup without the pasta.
- Cheap to make from pantry cans, a pound of beef and a few fresh vegetables.
What Is in Olive Garden's Pasta e Fagioli?
Olive Garden describes the soup on its soups, salad and breadsticks menu as white and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta in a savory broth (checked in October). It is one of the four soups you can pick with the soup, salad and breadsticks deal, along with Zuppa Toscana, Minestrone and Chicken & Gnocchi.
That menu line is my blueprint. The amounts, the vegetable base and the herbs are mine, because Olive Garden doesn't publish its recipe. My test for any copycat is simple: does it taste like the bowl you remember, and can you make it on a weeknight? This one passes both.
Ingredient Notes
Exact amounts are in the recipe card below.
- Ground beef: 85 to 90% lean gives flavor without a pool of fat. Ground turkey works too; cook it to 165°F.
- Red kidney beans and cannellini beans: the red and white beans from the menu. Great Northern beans can stand in for cannellini.
- Tubetti or ditalini: tiny tubes that fit on a soup spoon. Tubetti is what the menu names; ditalini is the easier find.
- Fresh Roma tomatoes plus crushed tomatoes: fresh for brightness and chunks, canned for a full, red broth.
- Low-sodium beef broth: the savory backbone. Low-sodium lets you control the salt once the Parmesan goes on.
- Carrot, celery and onion: not named on the menu, but I can see little carrot pieces in every restaurant bowl, and they add sweetness.
Step-by-Step Photos
Here's how it comes together. Exact amounts, times and temperatures are in the recipe card below.
Tips for Success
- Keep the pasta separate. I learned this the hard way when a whole pot of leftovers turned into bean-and-pasta porridge overnight. Now I cook the tubetti on its own and add it bowl by bowl.
- Drain the beef well. Leave about a tablespoon of fat for flavor and spoon off the rest, or a greasy slick floats on top of the broth.
- Use both kinds of beans. Olive Garden's menu says white and red beans. Kidney beans hold their shape and cannellini go creamy, and you want both textures.
- Fresh plus canned tomatoes. The menu lists fresh tomatoes, so I add diced Romas for that bright, chunky bite and a can of crushed tomatoes for body.
- Dice the vegetables small. Carrot and celery the size of the beans make every spoonful look and taste like the restaurant bowl.
- Season at the end. Broth, beans and Parmesan all bring salt, so I taste after the beans go in and only then add more.
- Thin it as you like. Olive Garden's version is thick. If yours gets too stew-like on day two, add a splash of broth or water as it reheats.
Copycat Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup
8
servings15
minutes40
minutes300
kcal55
minutesA copycat-style version of the pasta e fagioli soup at Olive Garden: browned ground beef, onion, carrot and celery simmered with fresh and crushed tomatoes in beef broth, with red kidney beans, white cannellini beans and small tubetti pasta. Serves 8.
Ingredients
- For the Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound lean ground beef (85 to 90% lean)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
2 celery ribs, diced small
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
15 ounces crushed tomatoes (one 15 oz can)
4 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 cup water
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
15 ounces red kidney beans (one 15 oz can), drained and rinsed
15 ounces cannellini beans (one 15 oz can), drained and rinsed
- For the Pasta and Serving
1 cup tubetti or ditalini pasta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, to serve
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, to serve
Directions
- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and onion and cook, breaking the beef into small crumbles, for 6 to 8 minutes until no pink remains and the beef reaches 160°F (71°C). Spoon off all but about 1 tablespoon of the fat.
- Add the carrots and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until they start to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Stir in the diced fresh tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, beef broth, water, oregano, basil, thyme, red pepper flakes (if using), salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 20 minutes.
- Add the kidney beans and cannellini beans and simmer 10 minutes more, until the carrots are tender and the broth tastes rich. Taste and add more salt if it needs it.
- While the soup simmers, boil the tubetti in well-salted water for 1 minute less than the package says, then drain. Keep the pasta separate so it does not soak up all the broth.
- Spoon some pasta into each bowl and ladle the hot soup over it. Top with grated Parmesan and parsley and serve with breadsticks. Refrigerate leftover soup and pasta separately within 2 hours.
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Variations
Once the base is down, this soup is easy to bend to what you have.
- Italian sausage: swap half the beef for mild or spicy Italian sausage for a peppery, fennel-scented pot.
- Vegetarian: skip the beef, use vegetable broth and add a third can of beans plus a handful of spinach at the end.
- Slow cooker: brown the beef first, then low for 6 to 7 hours; beans in for the last 30 minutes, pasta cooked separately.
- Gluten-free: use a gluten-free small pasta and check your broth label.
- Extra heat: double the red pepper flakes, or stir in a spoonful of Calabrian chili paste.
Storing, Freezing and Reheating
Cool the soup and get it into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking.
| How | How long | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge, soup | 3 to 4 days | Covered container; pasta stored separately |
| Fridge, cooked pasta | 3 to 4 days | Toss with a few drops of oil so it doesn't clump |
| Freezer, soup only | Up to 3 months | Leave 1 inch of headspace; thaw overnight in the fridge |
| Reheat | 5 to 10 minutes | On the stove until steaming, at least 165°F; add broth to loosen |
More Olive Garden Copycats
Make it a full soup, salad and breadsticks night with my copycat Olive Garden breadsticks, or try the other soups: creamy chicken gnocchi soup, spicy Zuppa Toscana and a lighter Olive Garden minestrone. Every dish I've copied from the menu is in my Olive Garden copycat recipes collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in Olive Garden pasta e fagioli?
Olive Garden's own menu describes it as white and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta in a savory broth (checked in October). This copycat follows that list, with onion, carrot, celery, garlic and Italian herbs for the base.
What does pasta e fagioli mean?
Pasta e fagioli is Italian for pasta and beans. It started as a thrifty Italian peasant soup. In Italian-American kitchens it is often shortened to pasta fagioli or pronounced pasta fazool.
What pasta does Olive Garden use in pasta e fagioli?
The menu lists tubetti, a short, small tube pasta. Ditalini is almost the same shape and easier to find, so either works. Small shells or elbows are fine in a pinch.
How many calories are in Olive Garden pasta e fagioli?
Olive Garden's nutrition guide lists a bowl of Pasta Fagioli soup at 150 calories, with 5 g fat and 8 g protein (checked in October). This homemade version is about 300 calories per serving because the bowls are bigger and the pasta is generous.
Can I make it in a slow cooker?
Yes. Brown the beef and onion first and drain the fat, then put everything except the beans and pasta in the slow cooker on low for 6 to 7 hours. Add the beans for the last 30 minutes and cook the pasta separately.
Can you freeze pasta e fagioli?
Yes, without the pasta. Cool the soup quickly, then freeze it in airtight containers for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, reheat to 165°F and cook fresh pasta to add when you serve it.
How long does it keep in the fridge?
Store the soup and the cooked pasta in separate covered containers for 3 to 4 days. Reheat the soup on the stove until it is steaming hot, at least 165°F, and add a splash of broth if it has thickened.
