Try it Tuesday

Unfortunately, I've been slacking on trying new recipes. This week's recipe is from my favorite Crockpot Lady again. Since it's still "soup" kind of weather here I thought I'd try this recipe. A friend of mine tried it and said it was pretty good. It's based on Olive Garden's Pasta E. Fagioli soup. I sort of 'halved' the original recipe and it left us plenty of left overs. Here's my version of the recipe:

Crockpot Pasta Fagioli

1/2 pound round turkey, browned and drained
1 T dried chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped baby carrots
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups chicken broth (sorry I don't do beef! :)
1/2 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce (approx. 1 1/2 cups)
1 tsp oregano
1 T generic hot sauce
1/8 tsp celery salt (i didn't have celery)
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time (I used whole wheat penne rigate)

I used a 4 quart crockpot and it filled it about 3/4 the way full.

Brown the meat on the stovetop with onion. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots and add them to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole can of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the broth, salt, pepper, oregano, and hot sauce. Stir in meat.

I cooked mine on high for about 4 hours then I added the pasta and cooked on low for another hour. The pasta swells, just so you know.

My thoughts
This is another good, easy soup recipe. I personally thought it was too salty. Spencer liked it fine. We technically 'doubled' the hot sauce, but we didn't notice the soup being spicy at all. Next time I probably wouldn't add any salt. Now that I think about it I think my can of tomatoes had salt (usually I buy unsalted), so that didn't help either. I would definitely make this again, but hopefully warmer weather is on the way and we won't be eating as much soup! :)