Olive Garden Pasta e fa*gioli - Recipe Diaries (2024)

Olive Garden's famous Pasta e fa*gioli soup is good on cold Fall nights or rainy cool Spring days with sprinkled with some parmesan cheese on top, and a piece of crusty bread! A copycat version you can make at home.

This post was updated on May, 1st, 2019. The picture was driving me crazy and it needed to be updated, plus the freestyle smart points I had needed to be updated as well after a reader had commented saying that Olive Garden's soup is only 2 smart points and I had 6 before. Previous comments about people asking for points are from WW previous plans. There are so many different varieties of sausage out there that can be used for this soup. I have used Sweet Italian Sausage and Hot Italian Sausage for this fa*gioli soup. If you don't like either sub out for chicken or turkey sausage. Use the WW recipe builder to figure out points for each sausage. With 1 cup of pasta, the soup became really thick so I lowered it down to only ½ cup.

Olive Garden is one of my favorite places to eat carbs. Their breadsticks are to die for and one could fill up on just soup and salad for a light lunch. I have to be really careful on the number of breadsticks I eat at Olive Garden because the calories and points can add up pretty quickly. Pasta fa*gioli is one of my favorite soups on their menu and it is a hearty soup filled with beans and pasta. Actually, I think it is similar to a hearty Italian chili. Some recipes call for Italian sausage or pancetta. The smell of bacon, onions, carrots, and celery cooking in a pot with some garlic is just one of the best cooking smells out there.

Walmart has these cheese breadsticks located in their bakery section and each breadstick is 3 smart points each. One of the ladies I follow on Instagram raves about them and I finally tried them. They are very good with this soup but not like Olive Garden's breadsticks. 1 breadstick with 1 cup of this soup is only 6 smart points.

Where I live Ditalini pasta can be super hard to find. There are two local grocery stores here and neither of them has that shaped pasta. I have to go to Wal-Mart just to find it and when I go there. I'll pick up a couple of boxes of ditalini and those breadsticks for this soup. There are lots of yummy zero point foods in this soup!

Ingredients for Olive Garde Pasta fa*gioli

• Ditalini pasta or large ringed pasta
• 8 oz ofsweet Italian sausage (can sub turkey sausage or chicken sausage)
• Garlic
• Onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Chicken broth
• Crushed tomatoes
• Basil
• Dried oregano
• Dried thyme
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste - I never add any extra salt to my soup because there is enough of it in the other canned foods.
• 1 (15-ounce) can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15-ounce) can of Dark Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

How to make Olive Garden Pasta fa*gioli Soup

1. Spray a large Dutch oven with cooking spray. Heat to medium-highheat. Addsweet Italian turkey sausageto the skillet and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, drain excess fat and set aside.
2. Stir in garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Whisk in chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Add in uncooked pasta and beans until heated through.

If you want leftovers of this soup or want to reheat it the next day, it will be very thick. Add in a little extra water before reheating

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