I’ve heard it pronounced that way, but not speaking Italian it looks as if it should be pronounced ‘pasteh fajyolee’.
Anyway.
What is the best, traditional, recipe for pasta e fagioli?
I’d never post this in GQ, but seeing how it is here, I asked an Olive Garden waitress this exact thing, and she told me the pronunciation is pretty much what you said.
Not saying it’s right, but that’s how I now pronounce it at Olive Garden. If I ever get to Italy, I will ask first, pronounce second, and let y’all know what they said.
BTW, I love that soup.
Crap, crap, just crap. Thank you all for putting up with me. This is the second or third time I hit the “Submit Reply” button too early.
The SECOND PART I intended to post was the recipe we use at home, hope it comes across without too much bad formatting, sorry:
Olive Garden® Pasta e Fagioli
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced (1 cup)
1 large carrot, julienned (1 cup)
3 stalks celery, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans (with liquid)
1 15-ounce can great northern beans (with liquid)
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1 12-ounce can V-8 juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 pound (1/2 pkg.) ditali pasta
1. Brown the ground beef in a large saucepan or pot over medium heat.
Drain off most of the fat.
2. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes.
3. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour.
4. About 50 minutes into simmer time, cook the pasta in 1 1/2 to 2
quarts of boiling water over high heat. Cook for 10 minutes or just until
pasta is al dente, or slightly tough. Drain.
5. Add the pasta to the large pot of soup. Simmer for 5-10 minutes
and serve. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com)
Serves 8.
The “fazool” pronunciation originates from Southern Italy (Naples, Calabria, Sicily). Most of the Italians in the Northeastern US have roots there, hence the “Tony Soprano” pronunciations of fazool, manigott’, and moozadell’ (for fagioli, manicotti, and mozzarella). In Northern Italian (which is the standard “educated” dialect), “fagioli” would have four syllables.
Further examples, with links, are in my post in this thread.
Four syllables? That confuses me, could you please describe that?
fah-zhee-OH-li
Hmmm, I speak Italian and I would not pronounce “fagioli” with four syllables. I would say, approximately, “fah-joe-lee” with the “joe” slightly pronounced as “zhee” but not really. The "gio"in “fagioli” is really just one sound - almost two; a very slight gee-oh, then lee; the “i” is really only there to change the pronunciation of the “g” from hard G to J.
I grew up speaking Northern Italian with somewhat of a Venetian accent and a slight Venetian twist to the dialect. Not much as my mother taught us “real” Italian but she sometimes pointed out the difference between the standard and the Venetian dialect.
“Fazool,” on the other hand, is an abomination in any language. I’ve been all over Italy, southern and northern, and have many southern Italian-born friends and relatives, and the only people who ever use the words “fazool” or “rigott” are Italian-Americans who got their language skills from cheesy Mob TV shows.
I wouldn’t trust an Olive Garden waitress to tell me the correct Italian pronunciation of anything, mainly because the Olive Garden is no more an Italian restaurant than Papa Gino’s is.
YMMV.