Leftovers: Flavorful pasta e fagioli pleases palate on a chilly night

Last fall, my parents lived with us for a few weeks while they waited for their new house to be painted so they could move in. One of the benefits of having my mom nearby was that she could teach me things that I really should have learned decades ago but had always been too lazy to try, like regularly mopping my floors and balancing a checkbook.

One day, the lesson was how to make chicken broth from the leftover carcass of a Costco rotisserie chicken. This process, which people have been doing for generations, somehow seemed completely intimidating to me. How much water should I put in the pot? How long does it boil? Do I add salt? No salt? I don’t understand how this works!

My mom patiently held my hand while I boiled my very first chicken carcass and created eight delicious cups of rich broth. When I saw how easy the process was, I felt irritated with myself for wasting all those carcasses over the years and spending money on store-bought broth.

I let the pot of broth cool down for a while on the counter and then put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours so the fat would congeal on the top, which I then scraped off with a spoon and discarded. I ladled about two cups of broth into separate resealable plastic bags and put them into the freezer to be used sometime in the future.

It didn’t take long before a blustery day had me pulling out the broth so I could make one of my favorite cold-weather soups: pasta e fagioli, a bean and pasta soup that is bursting with flavor. Simple and straightforward, its hearty Italian flavor is bumped up a considerable notch or two by the savory homemade chicken broth, and it uses healthy ingredients that you’re likely to already have on hand in your refrigerator and pantry.

If you want thicker soup, boil the pasta right in the soup about 10 minutes before serving. For a thinner consistency, boil the noodles separately and then add them to the soup right before serving. Eaten with a thick slice of crusty bread and a freshly tossed salad, this soup is sure to please your palate on a chilly night.

Pasta e Fagioli

Adapted from allrecipes.com.

½ cup chopped onion

1 small carrot, chopped

¼ cup celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ pound finely chopped ham

1 tablespoon olive oil

6 cups chicken broth

3 cups tomato juice or V8

2 cups kidney beans

1 tablespoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons dried basil

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

1 (16 ounce) package ditalini or other small pasta

Grated parmesan cheese, for serving

In a large stock pot, sauté the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and ham in olive oil until the onion is transparent.

Add the chicken broth, tomato juice, kidney beans, parsley, basil, cayenne pepper, vinegar and sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for 1 hour.

For a thicker soup, add the pasta to the soup just before serving and simmer for 8-10 minutes.

For a thinner soup, bring a separate pot of water to a boil and add pasta. Cook for 8-10 minutes, drain and add the cooked pasta to the soup just before serving.

Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle grated parmesan on top.