2 jars of your favorite pasta sauce
4 cups water
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 sticks of pepperoni (cut into small pieces)
3 cans navy beans (drained)
1 head of escarole (chopped into medium sized pieces)
1 lb box of ditalini
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon oregano
1/2 tablespoon basil

In a medium size soup pan add the 2 jars of sauce, water, garlic, pepper, oregano, basil and cut up pepperoni and bring to a rolling boil for 1 hour.(the soup gets its spice from the pepperoni) stir about every 10 minutes. After 1 hour, turn down to a simmer and add navy beans, and cut up escarole the soup. Its done when the escarole softens.(about 30 minutes) while the soup simmers, cook the box of ditalini separately. Drain; add pasta to the soup bowl just before serving. This will stop the pasta from soaking up all the liquid and getting soggy.

Store unused pasta in a separate container. This soup is even better the next day.

Submitted by: LORIE G