I made a few changes to the recipe based on other reviews. first I just used minced garlic(from the jar) never hade to find and remove, added 2 cans of butter beans(only beand I had on hand) used whole grain penne pasta, added 2 shredded carrots and 2 stalks of celery chopped with the onion, used chicken broth instead of water and bouillon. and added frozen spinach. family loved it. will make often!

Delish!! Just Brown bacon before adding onions...

Recipe Group selection of 12/31/11. I made several changes to this recipe. I used homemade chicken broth in place of the bouillon and water and a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes in place of the sauce. I diced my garlic so I didn't have to find it later and I cooked my pasta and placed it in the serving bowls and ladled the soup over so it didn't overcook. The flavor was good, better the 2nd day of course. We prefer smaller pasta than penne. I think ditalini would be better. This was also the first time I have had it with meat, it is usually vegetarian in the Italian restaurant around here. Thanks fo sharing

Recipe Group Selection: 31, December 2011 This was a first for my family. We've never had Pasta Fagioli, so we had nothing to compare it to. The change I had to make was in the garlic, I didn't have whole garlic so I used minced garlic. DH & DS really enjoyed this recipe and liked the leftovers even better. To me, it tasted a lot like ham and soup beans, which I don't care for, even though this used bacon. I do believe the serving size is a bit off, it states that this serves 4. I would have to have 4 VERY large bowls to make this only serve 4. I ended up with quite a bit more than that, and I have nice size soup bowls. Served this with Basic Buttermilk Muffins from this site.

Made this for RECIPE GROUP, actually made it twice. The first time I followed the recipe and instructions to a "T", the second time around I made a few changes (for the better, IMO). My rating is based on the original, which is a good soup with a nice flavor. My second version I added 2 stalks diced celery, and 2 peeled, diced carrots to the onion/bacon stage. I even used a couple more cloves of garlic since the flavor mellows when cooked like this and we LOVE garlic, I mashed all of the cooked cloves with a fork and a little of the broth and mixed it all right back in. I also used whole wheat penne since we don't eat white pasta or rice in my house. I also used 8 cups chicken broth, in place of the 2qt. water and 2 boullion cubes. If served immediately this soup has a nice broth (especially with the can of tomato sauce), the leftovers however become a casserole, a delicious casserole nonetheless. A little water to thin it back to soup does the trick and the leftovers are delicious! Thanks for submitting!

I made this for Recipe Group and my kids and I really enjoyed it. I used to live in Utica, NY which has a very large Italian population so I enjoyed dishes like Pasta Fagioli from lunch take-outs. This recipe has more bacon than I remember, probably because those places were trying to cut back on food costs but more bacon is not a bad thing! Be sure to taste before adding salt. I like salty food but didn't need to add any. It was even better the second day when I heated it up for lunch. Thanks for a healthy and tasty recipe!

your recipe was on the money. I'm a retired chef of 40 years & did much italian cuisine This is similar to the way I use to make it except I used fresh herbs, cut back on the garlic & used real chiken stock. For those that complained about it being to watery. It's suppose to be soupy. Great for dunking in french or italian bread. Excellent recipe.

I made this for Recipe Group - 12/31/2011. This soup was very disappointing. Please note that every time we’ve had Pasta Fagioli it has been at the North End, so perhaps we’re pasta fagioli snobs. You just can’t beat the Italian food at the North End. I decreased the water content which I would recommend to anyone trying this recipe.

Made this for Recipe Group and it is DELICIOUS! I did mince my garlic instead of using the whole cloves because I didn't want to have fish them out and chop them up later (yes, I'm lazy, lol), and I used 1 carton (4cups) of chicken broth and 4 cups water instead of the boullion cubes. Also, I used ditalini pasta instead of penne because that's the way we've always had any type of pasta fagioli, so it was just a personal preference that wouldn't affect the flavor at all. We really loved the flavor that the bacon gave to this, in fact, all the flavors blended beautifully. I will be using this recipe over and over again! Thanks for sharing. :)

When sauteing the garlic, onion, and thick sliced bacon, I added 1 T. of brown sugar. Read some of the previous reviews and noted there were some comments about the recipe having too much liquid - since we prefer thicker soups versus thin, I only added 1 quart of water. Smells divine while cooking and so delicious tasting plus today our weather here in North Carolina is bitterly cold and this was just perfect. Thanks FML31 for sharing your recipe on AR.