Instant Pot Pasta Fagioli Soup

Soup is one of my favorite things in the world to eat.  And while soup takes on many varieties, textures and flavors, there is a universal feeling you get every time that spoon kisses your lips.

So when it comes to making soup, I don’t mess around.  Especially when it comes down to a Pasta Fagioli.

Loaded with cannellini beans two-ways, this soup is also filled with pasta, pancetta and stewed tomatoes, making for a very hearty and sublime soup experience.

And because I appreciate you taking the time to read this recipe, I will save you from making some sham copycat Olive Garden recipe. There are SO many different ways of making a Pasta Fagioli soup.  Some like it really thin and tomato-y.  Some like it really thick and creamy.  My Pasta Fagioli soup is somewhere in the middle, but the secret to its success is in the execution.

And there really is no better thing to make soup than your Instant Pot.  Its quick and flavor-infusing powers not only blows the stove-top method away, but it also doesn’t turn your kitchen into a furnace.  Thanks to this wondrous device, I’ll never make soup any other way again!

Here’s How I Did It!

So we’re going to start by cooking our pasta and I’m using a Ditalini which is basically like a mini Ziti and cut in half if you want to look at like that. It’s very common for a Pasta Fagioli so add that to the pot and then just cover with enough water and a little bit of salt and then just give it a stir.

Secure the lid on the IP and hit manual or pressure cook or whatever button is on your Instant Pot model and we’re just going to go for 4 minutes while our pasta is cooking and follow with a quick release.

While cooking, let’s take one medium yellow onion and dice it up.

When the pasta is done cooking, let’s drain it a little bit and give it a rinse with some cool water and let that sit there for the rest of the time while we finish cooking our soup.

So let’s get our liner pot back inside the IP and let’s add one tablespoon of salted butter and then hit sauté and make sure we’re on the more setting.  Once our butter has been melted, let’s add our onion and let’s stir them up for about a couple of minutes most all onions become a little bit translucent and slightly brown in color.

Let’s then add some pancetta and then stir that up as well.  After about three minutes of stirring and setting our onions and pancetta…

…we’re going to add some cannellini beans WITH the juices from the can.

We’re also going to add 3 cups of chicken broth, one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and stir well top it off with 2 bay leaves before the lid is secured and in sealing position and then let’s hit manual and we’re just going to also cook this for another 4 minutes.

Now while our soup is cooking I’m going to take another can of cannellini beans and a can of stewed tomatoes and I’m going to drain them right through a colander like that and then add them on top of our strained pasta at the same time as we’re going to add them all together once the lid comes off.

Once the lid comes off, first let’s fish out our bay leaves and discard them.

Then we’ll add and a half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese and stir it all in there and now it’s time to have some fun!

Using an immersion blender (or you can transfer this all to its blender itself and do it that way but an immersion blender is obviously so much easier), we’re going to purée what we have really well for about a minute.

Lastly, we’re going to add in our pasta, other beans and stewed tomatoes and combine…

…so that everything’s mixed together perfectly!

 Let sit for a few minutes as it will thicken a bit (but not too much) and then serve it up!  

Just a WONDERFUL soup!

Instant Pot Pasta Fagioli Soup