Pasta fagioli or Pasta e fagioli, meaning "pasta and beans," is a traditional Italian peasant dish that is now a frequent menu item throughout the world. Like many other Italian favorites including pizza and polenta, the dish started as a peasant dish, due to cheaply available beans and pasta. Today it can be widely found, even in restaurants that don't feature Italian cuisine.
It is made using cannellini beans or borlotti beans and some type of small pasta such as elbow macaroni. The base is generally olive oil, garlic, onion and spices, along with stewed tomatoes or tomato paste or traditionally, in home recipes, the leftover sauce from Sunday marinara. It should be noted that some variations do not include tomatoes at all, and are made from a broth.
The consistency of the dish can vary, as some renditions fall clearly in the soup category, usually because the tomato was left out, while others are much thicker.
Depending on the dialect of Italian being used, the word fagioli may be pronounced as it is spelled, or closer to /faːzul/ or even /vaːzul/. A 1927 song by Van and Schenck capitalizes on this latter pronunciation in the rhyme, "Don't be a fool, eat pasta fazool."http://www.network54.com/Forum/27140/message/1120262614/According+to+Van+and+Schenck-
