Hearty Pasta e Fagioli

What defines a kitchen activity as "cooking?" In other words, what makes something "count" as cooking, instead of just throwing together some Kraft Mac n' Cheese? This question inspired me to do my Quarter 2 IRP on the book How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I would like to learn how to cook in the way the author describes it--from scratch, or with real ingredients (unlike that mystery, neon orange "cheese" powder . . . as delicious as it is).

Pasta e Fagioli

Healthy, wholesome vegetables
that are used in the recipe

For my first blog post, I decided on cooking a soup dish known as Pasta e Fagioli, or pasta and beans because it uses plenty of wholesome vegetables as its main ingredient. In all, its ingredients are as follows:

"1/4 cup of olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, peeled and diced
1 1/2 to 2 cups hard vegetables, like potatoes, winter squash, parsnips, or turnips, peeled if necessary and cut into smaller than 1/2-inch dice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable stock or water
1 cup peeled, seeded, and chopped tomato
1 1/2 to 2 cups of soft vegetables, like green beans, cooked dried beans, zucchini or summer squash, or dark, leafy greens like kale or collards, cut into smaller than 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 cups canned beans
1 cup small uncooked pasta" (Bittman 124).

The list's examples of, say hard vegetables, was very helpful to me in getting ideas on what to put in the soup. Usually I am discouraged to cook because I worry about not having all of the right ingredients. Seeing the general list with examples made me realize that there were a variety of vegetables to choose from, and that my soup with probably turn out well no matter what.

 Before even starting the cooking process, I knew that the most difficult part would be dicing all of the vegetables as called for. It seemed daunting to me, because before, I've been uncomfortable with using knives. It has taken me a very long time to slice even an apple, because I worry about cutting myself. But, my book had a guide on how to use knives that was very helpful. First it said that, "the best way to hold one for maximum stability and flexibility is to grip the handle as close to the blade as is comfortable and put your thumb on the inside, against the hilt, with your other fingers wrapped around the other side. You can even stretch your forefinger up the blade a little bit for more control" (Bittman 12). By holding the knife this way, I felt much more confident that I wouldn't hurt myself. Placing my forefinger on the blade as suggested made the knife feel much more stable in my hand, thus allowing me to dice all of the vegetables much faster. This stability also allowed me to dice the vegetables into much smaller pieces than I would've expected, because the knife went exactly where I wanted it to.

Because of the easier knife grip, I was able
to dice this entire bowl of vegetables
(a quart) in only about fifteen minutes!

Suggested Knife Grip
(note my forefinger on the 
opposite side of the blade)

Aside from my fear of knives, this recipe originally intimidated me because I was working with unfamiliar vegetables. For example, one of the hard vegetables included a parsnip, which I didn't know how to prepare. Thankfully, the book solved this problem as well. It said that parsnips should be treated like carrots, and that their woody cores must be removed. One must cut the parsnip in half along its length (after peeling), and then use a paring knife to dig out the core (Bittman 328). The comparison to carrots helped me because I already knew how to dice and peel a carrot, and I just had to do the same thing. The coring instructions told me exactly how to deal with the foreign part of the vegetable, and I found that using a paring knife was much more efficient than any other tool would've been. Its sharp point allowed me to remove the core without wasting any of the parsnip flesh. After following the author's guide, I was quickly able to prepare the parsnip just like the rest of the vegetables. As a plus, I will also know how to deal with parsnips if another recipe calls for them in the future.

Parsnip and its Core

Sauteing the onion,
carrots, and celery

After preparing and chopping all of the ingredients, I was ready to cook the actual soup. The recipe is cooked by first sauteing the onion, carrots, and celery in olive oil, and then adding the stock and other vegetables. Then, everything is left to simmer over medium heat until the vegetables soften. The beans are then added. Finally, the uncooked pasta is added and the soup is simmered until the pasta becomes soft. (Bittman 124). Cooking this was simple, because it was just a matter of adding things to a pot and waiting. I had cooked pasta before and the process was similar. I simmered the soup for a total of about thirty minutes, and then voila, my Pasta e Fagioli was complete!


Overall, the most challenging part of this recipe was getting comfortable enough with a knife to dice a large quantity of vegetables. Using the book How to Cook Everything, I was able to do this, and cook a fantastic and healthy soup! Now, I would like to be able to keep up the chopping skills I learned, and to practice that knife grip. Do you know of any other recipes that I could practice with(possibly one that requires lots of cut-up vegetables)? Or, do you know of any other tips on how to use knives efficiently? If so, leave a comment!