Quick help! Pasta Fagiola

[Clarity]

I'm making homemade pasta fagiola today (first time) and I decided to add spinach to help pack the soup full of veggies. But I think I put in too much spinach b/c my soup is now a bit overwhelmed by the earthy taste of spinach. How can I downplay that a bit and get a bit of the herby/tomato flavor to shine a bit more? FWIW, I added an extra can of diced tomatoes and some additional oregano/parsley after I added the spinach and I still taste too much spinach! I want it there more for nutrients than taste.

(Mods, I know this belongs in What's Cooking but I wanted quick help...can you move it after I get some? Thanks!)

[jayali]

How about sauteing some onions and garlic and adding a dash more tomatoes right at the end and then adding it all to the soup? I sometimes put pancetta in mine - if you want to saute that and add it that will definitely help tone down the flavor of the spinach - but if you want to keep it vegetarian then just stick with sauteing up some veggies separately and adding them. It will be more like a stew then a soup but mine never comes the same twice!

[Clarity]

Hmm, well I started with sauteed onions and garlic, added celery, carrots, zucchini, and herbs, cooked that down and added some broth and the now offending spinach. Added beans, pasta, the additional diced tomatoes and some more herbs and more broth (because it IS very stew-y but that is what I was going for, we've done a lot of soup around here lately.)
I went downstairs and added a bit more garlic - you think I should add more sauteed onions?

[lil_acorn]

how about adding more broth?

[larig]

v8. my pasta fagoili recipe is an olive garden knock off and calls for it

[neeter]

v8. my pasta fagoili recipe is an olive garden knock off and calls for it

could you possibly post this recipe! i love this! :) thnx!!

[Clarity]

v8. my pasta fagoili recipe is an olive garden knock off and calls for it

Yes! can you post that recipe?

[etaylor75]

I'd add a little lemon juice to brighten the flavor....good luck!!

ERin

[misshollygolightly]

This may sound weird, but a little bit of ketchup might do the trick.

[Clarity]

I'd add a little lemon juice to brighten the flavor....good luck!!

ERin

This might have worked, I'll keep it in mind if there is a next time. Thanks!

[Clarity]

Thanks for the suggestions! I ended up adding more garlic and more broth and then cooking it down a bit. It turned out really great, the spinach taste diminished a bit. All in all Pasta Fagioli is pretty easy to make!

[larig]

I think this is really really close to the original. enjoy!

mock olive garden Pasta e Fagoli Soup
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Serving Size: 8

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 cup onion diced
1 cup carrot julienned
1 cup celery chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cans diced tomato
1 can red kidney beans with liquid
1 can great northern beans with liquid
1 can tomato sauce
1 ounce 12 can V-8® vegetable juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 package ditali pasta

Directions:

brown beef and drain. add next 4 ingredients cook 10 minutes. add everything else ( except save pasta for later) simmer 1 hour. cook pasta separately. add pasta a serving at a time to keep it from going mushy.

(I actually shred the carrots coarsely.)