Pasta e Fagioli

There are several "pasta e fagioli" recipes throughout Italy, I prepared this one the way my grandma used to. Her version is simple but amazingly tasty. So here it goes:

- Fill the bottom of the pot with the best extra-virgin olive oil you can find (I'm biased towards Sicilian) and place over medium/low heat
- Add some peperoncino to the oil base
- Chop an onion, 2 celery sticks and a carrot and soften in the hot oil
- Add a teaspoon of tomato paste
- Add the beans and their juice (if fresh make sure to drown in water overnight before using, or else cheat and buy two cans of brown beans in water)
- Cook on med/low heat until beans are soft
- Add salt to taste.
- Making sure the soup is still watery, add the pasta once it reaches a boil

- The pasta should be ditali or ditalini. I have a hard time finding either in the UK so had to settle for shells
- The perfect pasta e fagioli (in my opinion) needs to be somewhat dense. Cooking the pasta in the soup helps.
- Once served, add a table spoon of olive oil to each plate and let it all cool before diving in with your spoons.
- Left-over heaven: Nothing like a reheated pasta e fagioli. Almost a totally different dish...but still delicious!

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