Italian Soup with Penne & Garlic Bread
A bowl of thick tomato soup with penne that soaked up every drop of vegetable broth, next to a slice of garlic bread sharp with raw garlic and dripping with melted cheddar.
The starch from the pasta thickens the liquid naturally — no cream needed. While the pot simmers, the bread goes into a 425°F oven until golden, then gets rubbed with a raw garlic clove that melts into the hot surface on contact.
One pot, one person, 20 minutes. Between the penne and the bread, 14 grams of fiber alongside 760 calories.
Ingredients
- tomato 2 piece
- onion 0.25 piece
- celery 1 stalk
- carrot 1 piece
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- vegetable bouillon 1 cube
- water 2 cup
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounce
- bread, whole wheat 1 slice
- garlic 1 clove
- cheddar cheese, shredded 2 ounce
Method
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Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
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Cut the tomatoes into cubes. Chop the onion. Slice the celery and carrot into half rings.
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Heat half of the olive oil in a small soup pot and sauté the onion. Add the celery and carrot and stir-fry the vegetables for 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, the bouillon cube and water. Let the broth simmer gently for 5 minutes.
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Add the penne to the broth and cook for the al dente time on the package. Keep the lid on the pot.
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Season the soup with salt and black pepper.
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Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the bread and season with salt. Toast the bread in the oven for 4 minutes or until golden brown. Once out of the oven, lightly rub the bread with half of the garlic clove.
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Serve the soup with the cheese and the garlic bread.
Cook the penne directly in the broth rather than boiling it separately. The starch that releases from the pasta thickens the liquid naturally, turning a thin vegetable broth into a soup that coats every spoon.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Is 760 calories a lot for a soup?
Not for a soup you sip before the main course — but that is not what this is. The 84 grams of whole wheat penne and 56 grams of cheddar account for most of those calories. At 2,000 calories a day split across four meals, 760 fits the largest one comfortably.
Can I use regular pasta instead of whole wheat?
Yes. Check the package for cooking time — it may differ. Fiber drops because whole grain supplies the majority of that 14-gram count, but the soup itself holds up fine.
Why rub raw garlic on the bread instead of adding it to the soup?
Heat changes garlic. Cooked garlic turns mellow and sweet. Raw garlic rubbed on hot bread keeps its sharp, pungent bite — a different flavor entirely. The heat from the toast softens the clove’s surface just enough to spread without cooking it through.
Read the full evidence review
