Olive Garden Pasta e fa*gioli Soup (2024)

Our Olive Garden Pasta e fa*gioli Soup copycat recipe tastes just like the soup from the restaurant! The best part? This low-maintenance recipe slow cooks all day, allowing everything to simmer together for hours for maximum flavor!

This Pasta e fa*gioli Soup is one of my family’s most favorite cold weather meals. It reminds me of fall leaves, football season, sweaters and cozy fires. It’s my top choice at Olive Garden every time we go there to eat, so I decided to find a way to make it at home. This copycat recipe tastes exactly like what you get at Olive Garden (maybe even better)!

What is Pasta e fa*gioli Soup?

This popular Italian soup literally means “pasta and beans” so that’s what you’ll find in this dish, along with ground beef, Italian seasonings in a rich tomato based broth. Pasta E fa*gioli is very similar to another hearty favorite, minestrone soup, but they are not the same. The difference between these two soups is minestrone uses several different veggies and Pasta e fa*gioli features onion, celery and carrots for flavor, but no other vegetables.

Notable Ingredients

Ground Beef – For this recipe I like to use lean ground beef (93%/7%). If the beef is too fatty, then it makes the soup very oily. You can also sub the beef for Italian sausage, bacon, or pancetta.

Onion, Carrots, and Celery – This combination of savory vegetables is often called a mirepoix. Together, they create a base of flavor for the soup. White onion or yellow onion both work great.

Red and White Kidney Beans – It wouldn’t be Pasta e fa*gioli without the fa*gioli! As you might have guessed, fa*gioli means beans. I like to use dark red kidney beans and also white kidney beans, great northern beans, or cannellini beans.

Spices – The spice mix for this recipe includes oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper. If you want to expand on the flavor profile, then consider adding garlic powder, garlic cloves, basil, thyme, or a few bay leaves.

Ditalini Pasta – Ditalini pasta is the pasta that Olive Garden uses, but you can use other shapes like small shells, wagon wheels, or elbow macaroni noodles. Cook the pasta to just barely al dente, as it will soften in the soup.

How to Make Pasta fa*gioli Soup

I love how easy this recipe is to make. It’s as easy as browning the beef then adding it with all the other ingredients to a Crock Pot and letting it slow cook all day. Here’s what to do:

1. Brown the beef – If you want, you can add the chopped onions at this step too. The onions cook long enough to soften completely either way so it doesn’t really matter when you add them.
2. Add remaining ingredients (except for the pasta) – Add the beef and all of the rest of the ingredients except for the pasta into the Crock Pot. If you add the pasta at this point it will get way too overcooked. Its best to add it at the end.
3. Add the pasta – Cook the pasta only to al dente, drain, and then add it to the soup right before serving. That’s it! Add any toppings you like for garnish and serve.

Tips and Suggestions

This pasta fa*gioli recipe makes a LOT of soup (approximately 20, 1 cup servings) so it’s a terrific recipe for feeding a crowd. I almost always have leftovers and they heat up great for lunches later in the week. You can also cut the recipe in half if you are just feeding a small family.

This soup freezes well. Store in freezer safe containers or Ziploc bags in the freezer for up to two months.

Frequently Asked Questions

Make it a Meal

When we make Pasta e fa*gioli soup we like to pretend that it’s unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden. Try it with our copycat Olive Garden Salad and some warm bread such as our homemade breadtwists, garlic breadsticks, focaccia, or our delicious Italian Cheesy Bread recipe.

More Slow Cooker Soups to Try