Pasta e Fagioli

Tonight for dinner I made Pasta e Fagioli from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food. It was a perfect hearty, vegetarian winter meal- just some veggies, beans, pasta, broth, oregano, and the secret ingredient- a parmesan rind. If you have one, I really do recommend adding the parmesan rind- it adds so much flavor.

The soup only took about 45 minutes, and it made a huge batch. Since I didn't want to eat it every day for a week, I decided to freeze about half of it. The key to freezing this soup is doing it before you add the pasta, since the pasta becomes nasty upon freezing and reheating. The portion I froze will make a nice, quick weeknight meal sometime later- all I'll have to do is add a handful of pasta and heat it until it's cooked, and I'll have this: