cranberry bean

This simple stew of long-simmered beans and tiny pasta is one of the world’s great comfort foods. Like many cucina povera classics, it is both affordable and adaptable, designed to use what you have. White beans, such as cannellini, are typically used, but just about any medium-size dried bean, like borlotti (cranberry) beans or even pinto beans will do. Beans have a wide variation in cook times, so start checking at 6 hours if you can, and know that some batches can take up to 10 hours. Fresh or frozen green beans popped in at the end of the cooking time add a welcome texture and sweetness, but feel free to omit them or to use whatever you have: shredded cabbage, broccoli rabe or fresh or frozen spinach would all work beautifully. This recipe feeds a crowd, and if you plan to have leftovers, cook the pasta separately and stir it into each serving, otherwise the pasta will soak up all the broth as it sits and become too soft.

Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli

beans

garlic cloves,

carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise if thick, sliced

celery stalks, sliced

Parmesan rind, optional (see Tip)

rosemary

chicken broth

oregano

garlic powder

onion powder

tomato sauce

(about 1 1/2 cups) ditalini pasta

tomato paste

green beans,

salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper

Parmesan,

In a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker, combine the soaked beans, garlic, carrots, celery, Parmesan rind, rosemary, broth, oregano, and garlic and onion powders. Cook on low until the beans are very tender, 6 to 7 hours. 

Increase the heat to high. Whisk in the tomato sauce, ditalini, tomato paste, and green beans, if using. Season with 2 teaspoons salt and several generous grinds of black pepper. Cover and cook until the pasta and green beans are just tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove and discard the rosemary stem and Parmesan rind. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if you like. Serve with grated Parmesan on top, if desired. 

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David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

NYT Cooking

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How do you translate this recipe to cooking on the stove top?

I was disappointed. The broth was almost entirely absorbed even before ditalini went in. Fresh green beans took much longer to cook and came out too crisp. Tasted like soup from a can but lots more work and expense.

I skipped the green beans and threw in most of a pint of mixed cherry tomatoes that needed using up. Aye it with some leftover cooked chicken for protein. This is the easiest dinner ever and Delicious!

This soup is delicious. I had a pound of Italian sausage I needed to cook, so I browned it in pieces & added to the soup in the beginning. Really yummy! I also did not add the garlic powder; just the fresh.

Cornstarch 1tbs 
Add onion next time 
6 hours was not sufficient on low
Switched to high for 2.5 hours and that did the trick 
Start on high next time 
Put green beans in earlier

The beans came out perfect. I didn’t enjoy the flavor of the granulated garlic. The overall flavor wasn’t good either. I have a great recipe for this in a pressure cooker that I’ll use going forward. This is the first NYT recipe that I really didn’t like.

Really yummy recipe!! My beans never simmered since my slow cooker doesn’t get that hot so I took the contents (except for the pasta) and boiled it on the stove for 20 mins for good measure. I cooked the pasta separately and added it to the bowls at the end. Great dish! Heartwarming and tasty. It didn’t taste like too much garlic even though I added all the cloves and powder that were called for.

I did omit the salt at the end. I tasted the dish and it was salty enough. My chicken broth is pretty salty though so I’m sure that’s where it came from. Will make again!

I really like this recipe. I don’t pre soak the beans, just cook them with the soup, which gives a much more hearty and rich flavor (and makes it easier if you can never remember to pre soak, like me). The trick is, you have to add the tomato/lemon and any other acid AFTER the beans soften, otherwise it is true, the beans remain hard as rocks.

I didn’t use Kosher salt, but a little less than called for regular salt. Didn’t add Parmesan yet, and it tastes a little too salty for me. Maybe I shouldn’t add salt at all?

I followed the directions using cranberry beans from Rancho Gordo - the soup tasted great but the beans were still undercooked and hard even with an overnight soak.

This was fantastic. Made it as written except didn't add green beans. It was delicious enough that my 12 year old son filled up on a bowl before we headed out for trick-or-treating! A perfect cold-weather soup. And the freshly grated parm was the perfect topper.

This was great. I used large cranberry beans, cooked it on about 107c overnight, let it sit during the day, then heated it, added fresh tomatoes, tom paste and the pasta. At the end I added a bag of fresh spinach. Really, one of the best meals I’ve adapted since cooking in Europe.

Here’s a cranky note.  Why would the author say the beans should reach a simmer and cook until tender to be safe to eat.  Does that mean they aren’t safe to eat until they’re tender?  I tasted them after four hours of cooking.  They weren’t tender.  Should I go to urgent care?  These kind of incomplete instructions are maddening!

Not sure why some people had trouble cooking the beans in the slow cooker. No problems here! Just followed the recipe.

Seems to me using a can of tomatoes (not sauce), a chopped onion (not powder), and foregoing garlic powder (given the prescribed multiple cloves of actual garlic) would pretty clearly give you a soup that tasted a whole lot less like it just came out of a can.

I hate to read cranky notes. That said, this is pasta fagioli only because it has pasta and beans. The recipe I grew up with is easy and fast:  sauté garlic clove(s) in olive oil, plus 3-4” stalk of celery tops. Add tomato sauce (16z) and half as much water. Add fresh basil, S&P. Simmer 30”. Add can(s) of Navy or Great Northern beans. Simmer 30”. Cook ditalini and add before serving. Grated Romano cheese a must. Also red pepper flakes to taste if you need heat. Peasant comfort food at its best.

There's a reason for not adding tomatoes sooner. If you add tomatoes at the beginning, the acid will keep the beans from softening.

Instead of soaking my beans, I wash, cover with water by 2 inches, bring to a boil, boil for 15 minutes and then let soak for an hour.  I find it equivalent to soaking overnight.

The dish is meant to be mild in order for children and sensitive folks to enjoy. In Calabria we add a bit of Calabrian chili oil and lots of grated pecorino. Drizzle with olive oil if your not having the grated cheese. I like mine with diced potatoes instead of pasta. My nonna added Swiss chard no celery. Three bay leaves and rind of cheese for,flavour. Fresh ground pepper and olive oil were my fav toppings as I wasn’t a big cheese fan.

I never have success with beans in slow cookers, and despite soaking them overnight and cooking them in a relatively new slow cooker, and despite a simmering broth, after 8 hours, the beans were still dry and hard as a rock. I have cooked soaked beans in my Dutch oven on the stovetop successfully numerous times and for years. And no, I haven't had these beans in my pantry for decades--granted, they're supermarket beans and not Rancho Gordo beans, but nevertheless, I can cook beans on the stove.

A simple switch of chicken stock to vegetable stock and this is a vegetarian meal!

This was actually pretty good; the smell was fantastic while it cooked all day, and the beans turned out really well. The overall taste was good but not outstanding. The addition of green beans felt a little out of place to us.

I can't believe that the recipe says to discard the Parm rind after cooking the beans. Cut it up and it's the Chef's treat.

I frequently make whatever-I-have-around soup (I'm sure most of us do this) and this recipe tracks almost exactly to what I most often end up with!  I always appreciate recipes like this, because when I make it up as I go along I often feel like I don't get the seasonings quite right - and I'm not likely to use an entire head of garlic, which sounds divine.  Look forward to trying this one.

Recipe worked perfectly for me, no changes. I soaked the beans overnight with just water - no salt. Cooked on low for 6 hours, high for another half. Beans were perfectly cooked.

Onion powder and garlic powder are dried onions and garlic which are ground into a powder. The flavor is infused differently than it is from fresh. It's garlic and onion salt which are "processed."

I live at 9000+ feet and a pressure cooker is the ONLY way I can cook dried beans.

I recently was told that the reason my beans weren't getting soft is because I salted them.  I now add salt after the beans soften.   Adding a teaspoon of baking soda while soaking is also supposed to help - I haven't tried this.

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