Instant Pot Pasta Fagioli Soup–your favorite soup from Olive Garden made quickly at home in your pressure cooker. White and red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
Instant Pot Pasta Fagioli Soup
For years my slow cooker version of pasta fagioli soup has been super popular. I love to make this soup when I’m feeding a huge crowd because it makes a lot! I love making breadsticks or homemade rolls to serve with this soup. And maybe even a simple salad with the Olive Garden salad dressing to make the experience complete.
A few notes:
The Pasta–Usually I make Instant Pot Pasta e Fagioli Soup with ditalini pasta*. You can use plain old elbow macaroni noodles and that will work awesome too.
The other thing you need to know about the pasta is that is soaks up a lot of liquid. The longer it sits the less it is like a soup and the more it is like a goulash. So this is what I propose…boil the pasta on the stove separately. Ladle a bowl of soup into a bowl and add the desired amount of pasta into your bowl. Keep the pasta and soup in different containers in your fridge and whenever you want soup add the cooked pasta right before eating.
Can I halve the recipe?–yes. It’s kind of a pain in the booty to only use half a can of beans though. So what I would suggest is leaving out the Great Northern beans and just using one can of kidney beans. Also the crushed tomatoes I buy come in a large 28 oz can but I’ve seen a 14 oz can before at the grocery store. Everything else is really easy to cut in half.
Recommendations
More Instant Pot Soup Recipes You’ll Enjoy…
Instant Pot Italian Tortellini Soup–a favorite from childhood, everyone loves this soup!
Instant Pot Chicken Gnocchi Soup–another Olive Garden copycat soup!
Instant Pot Creamy Tortellini, Spinach and Chicken Soup–one of the most popular recipes on my website!
Instant Pot Lasagna Soup–serve with a dollop of ricotta on top!
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Instant Pot Pasta e Fagioli Soup
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 13 servings 1x
Description
Your favorite soup from Olive Garden made quickly at home in your pressure cooker. White and red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
- Salt and pepper
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup shredded or diced carrots (I used 3 medium carrots)
- 1 cup diced celery (I used 3 celery ribs)
- 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 Tbsp better than bouillon beef base*
- 2 cups water
- 1 (15 oz) can light red kidney beans, with liquid
- 1 (15 oz) can great northern beans, with liquid
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 ½ tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 6 oz ditalini pasta, uncooked
- Parmesan cheese, for topping
- Parsley, for garnish
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot onto the “saute” function to the highest setting. When the pot is hot, add in the ground beef and brown. Break the beef up with a wooden spoon and let it brown. Lightly salt and pepper the meat. Add in the onion and garlic. Stir until the onion is translucent. Drain off excess grease. (I used 85% lean ground beef so there was a bit of grease, if you use leaner there will be less grease).
- Add in the carrots, celery, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, better than bouillon, water, kidney beans, great northern beans, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, thyme and apple juice.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Press the Soup Button (high pressure) and set the timer to 5 minutes. Make sure the valve is set to “sealing.” When the timer beeps let the pot sit there for an additional 10 minutes and then release any remaining pressure by moving the valve to “venting.”
- While the soup is pressure cooking cook the pasta according to directions on package. Drain and set aside.
- Open the lid and stir the soup. Ladle into bowls and add desired amount of pasta into each bowl. Top with Parmesan cheese and a bit of parsley.
Notes
Can I halve the recipe?–yes. It’s kind of a pain to only use half a can of beans though. So what I would suggest is leaving out the Great Northern beans and just using one can of kidney beans.
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
This was so good. I will definitely be making it again. It was so flavorful and easy. I followed the recipe exactly. I did use ground beef instead of chicken . If you make sure you put the water in first, you shouldn’t get a burn notice.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed the soup Donna! ☺️
Excellent flavour we loved it but ran into a big problem, who ever thought I could get a burn message making a soup ??? I used ground turkey and really deglazed the pot after adding the bouillon – I have been instant potting for 3 years, I used my 6 quart but I also have the 3 and 8 qt; why I got this message is beyond me. The only thing I can think of is perhaps the turkey is too lean. I will try with ground beef or ground Italian sausage next time.
★★★★★
So good. I added a cheese rind too.
★★★★★
Good idea! I bet that gave it great flavor!
Just tried to make this soup. Followed your recipe exactly. Before it got up to pressure I got the BURN signal. So emptied the pot, cleaned it out and started again. Same thing happened. so I gave up and finished it off on the stove. I have never had a BURN signal in 2 years of following your recipes. Why today??
I’m sorry. Next time what I would do is layer the ingredients. So brown the beef and then add in the water. Scrape the pot. Then layer in the rest of the ingredients ending with the tomatoes. That’s probably why. The tomatoes were too thick and caused it to burn.
Love the recipe. I’ve made it twice. I never got the “BURN” notice but did see scorching on the beans both times. I will try the layering trick the next time and perhaps that will solve the scorching problem.
★★★★★
okay!! Good to know!
I followed the recipe to the T. It was outstanding. I will definitely make it again!
★★★★★
So glad you liked it Grant!
We’ve had the instant pot 3+ years and never used it until tonight. Husband & I LOVED this recipe & will be making it again! Your website is so helpful & I’ll be visiting often.
Karen in Texas
a former non-cook!
★★★★★
GREAT!!! Good job on using it! You can do this.
I made this wonderful soup yesterday. I cooked my beans from the dry ones first in my 3 quart IP and then made the soup. I used Great Northern and pintos. I didn’t have apple juice so I added a splash of apple cider vinegar. The next time I make this I will use Italian sausage and increase the spices. I also used rotini because that is what I had on hand, but I did keep them separate even when I put in frig. I also added hot pepper flakes. This was better than Olive Gardens’s—to me their soup isn’t think enough.
I’m glad you made it work for you. Your changes sound great!
I thought it was good, but did not care for it enough to make again.
I made this today for me and my husband. Used sweet turkey sausage instead of hamburger and beef broth. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. Came out perfect! Everything cooked perfectly and it was well seasoned. We loved it! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you liked it.
Why didn’t you cook the pasta in the instant pot with the other ingredients??
Just curious not criticizing.
the pasta is that is soaks up a lot of liquid. The longer it sits the less it is like a soup and the more it is like a goulash. So this is what I propose…boil the pasta on the stove separately. Ladle a bowl of soup into a bowl and add the desired amount of pasta into your bowl. Keep the pasta and soup in different containers in your fridge and whenever you want soup add the cooked pasta right before eating.
This was awesome!!! Curious as to what the apple juice does for the soup? I used it and the family loved the soup!!!
★★★★★
Just adds a little sweetness and flavor!
Hello Karen
This soup is one of my favorites!
One of them will be ready in a few minutes!
It’s so tasty, it’s a winner in my family every time!
By the way, I rinse the beans so they’re more digestible.
Thank you!
★★★★★
Good tip! Thanks Andree.
I haven’t tried this yet, but I usually drain and rinse my beans. Is there a reason to include the liquid from the beans? Could I just increase the water and BTB, instead?
Sure you could do that. It just adds a little salt and flavor.
I am Italian and we always make Pasta Fagiola without meat. This looks interesting, I will give it a try.
Interesting!
We also make it with white beans and no tomatoes.
So yummy! My family is picky so I used this recipe to hide in extra veggies! I threw in a can of sweet corn that I drained and diced yellow and orange bell peppers.
★★★★★
Awesome ideas!
A little oversight Karen…
I also have the same Instant Pot as Lee, and I didn’t have the problem encountered. I had everything mixed up in the preparation. It’s true that it’s a little thick, maybe we should adjust the water.
Thank you!
Hello Karen
I made this soup yesterday for dinner… a pure delight! We really liked this soup. My husband kept saying how good she was! I cooked my gluten-free pasta on the stovetop.
The celery and carrots were a little crunchy, next time I’ll grate the carrots and cut the celery even smaller! Since I didn’t have any ground beef, I had lean ground pork.
Thank you Karen for all your great recipes!
★★★★★
Tried in a Instant Pot Ultra 80. Followed all of the instructions. Had a problem with a burn indication showing on the screen before the IP reached pressure. Ended up using the slow cook feature for 30 minutes with a temperature setting of 175 Deg. F. Flavor was good but probably not as good as if I was able to use the pressure method. Any ideas on how to avoid the burn indication. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Perhaps try “layering the ingredients” instead of stirring them in. So start with the beef as written and then add the water. Then layer the rest of the ingredients on top of the water.
Thanks for the response. Seems like I’m the only one who had the problem. Will follow your advice for the next time. There definitely will be a next time very soon. The flavor is amazing. No need to go to the OG restaurant.
★★★★★
HI! If you cook pasta separately, there are no adjustments to liquid amounts in IP?
right
Italian sausage instead of ground beef
I made this last night as my second Instant Pot recipe (just got it last weekend). This is delicious! It was even better as leftovers in my lunch box today. I had to swap some ingredients – dry white wine for the apple juice and fire roasted tomatoes because that’s what was in the pantry. Oh my gosh this is SO good and so easy! I love this website and these recipes! So glad I bought an Instant Pot and even more glad people have lots of good recipes they are willing to share 🙂
★★★★★
Welcome to the Instant Pot world Susan!!!! I’m glad you found my site 🙂
I am gluten free right now. Have found GF macaroni that cooks okay in the IP, but cooks for 4 minutes. I don’t see a problem for any of the other ingredients, do you?
I bet that would work The other ingredients seem okay to me. I am not a GF expert though!
Add one jar of basil marinara sauce instead of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes instead of crushed. Also a teaspoon of fennel seed and a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes. r
★★★★
Love those ideas! Keep em coming 🙂
Do you have any idea how to change it to use dried rather than canned beans? Thanks
You would have to cook the dried beans beforehand on their own and then add them in with the other ingredients. This is because the dried beans take much longer to cook than any of the other ingredients. Plus they wouldn’t soften because of the acidity of the tomatoes. Here is a tutorial on how to cook dried beans in the instant pot. https://amindfullmom.com/instant-pot-beans/
Can you make it without beef ? I love your IP recipes and wish you had more for vegetarians/pescatarians
I’m sure you could leave out the meat all together. Maybe add in some mushrooms???
Yes, you can make this vegetarian with substituting any type of ground crumbles (Boca, Morning Star, Gardein). Sometimes I skip sautéing the crumbles and just put them in the cooker after everything else is sautéed. I do break up the crumbles in a separate bowl before adding. Mushrooms would be great in this recipe too. I add mushrooms to a lot of recipes. They are packed with vitamins!
★★★★★
Another winner! So glad I stumbled across your site. Looking forward to eating this for lunch all week.
Thanks!
Yes! Glad you liked it Robyn 🙂
This recipe is the first thing I’ve made in my IP and it was absolutely delicious! I made it as printed except I used diced tomatoes as I thought I had crushed but did not. My father-in-law loved it as well. Now just waiting for hubby to get home from work so he can try it. I’m sure he will love it too. Thanks for such a great recipe!!
★★★★★
YESSSSS!!!! Win! So happy.
I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious. I doubled the pasta so I had to add just a little water to the serving dishes to make it more “soupy”. I also added 1 tbsp of sour cream to the serving bowl and mixed it in. I also didn’t have apple juice so I added a qtr cup more water and 2 tbsp of my homemade apple butter just to get the little bit of apple flavor in there. Soooo Good. Thanks for the recipe it will be used often.
★★★★★
So glad to hear this!
Excellent recipe. Tastes just like Olive Garden’s. Didn’t have any fancy pasta so I used macaroni. Worked great. Also didn’t have any apple juice so I just skipped it. Used 3 cups of beef stock instead of better than bouillon. Obviously this is a very forgiving recipe. 😀 Since I made this for just my husband and myself, I made the full recipe but froze half of it without the pasta. I then used 4 oz of pasta in the soup that I made tonight. When I cook the frozen batch, I will add another 4 oz of pasta. Thanks for a great recipe.
★★★★★
awesome! So glad you like it 🙂
Is there anything you can use in place of the Apple juice? I have all the ingredients to make this except for that.
Maybe just more broth? I’m sure that will be fine.
How about red wine?
That would work!
If I cut the recipe in half, do I also have to make an adjustment as to how long to cook the soup in the instant pot?
nope, same cooking time!
I made this last night – delicious and easy! Thank you for the recipe!
You’re so welcome!!
Hello. I cannot use better than bouillon. I know that I should be able to use beef broth in this place. May I ask how much beef broth to use? thank you
Use 3 cups beef broth 🙂
So instead of 1T. of Better Than Bouillon, you use 3 C. of beef broth? Or does this also take the place of the water? Thanks.
you can use 1 Tbsp of bouillon + 3 cups of water or 3 cups of beef broth