I've had good pasta at the Olive Garden but the soup and salad I had for lunch there one day was really not the best I have had. The salad was just a basic salad and the soup was watery. Will give them another chance and see if it is any better.

We printed these recipes out as they are just the right type of meals that we were searching for. I will probably share some of these with our Moms and Tots group (St. Ann's Parish Family, Sayville, NY) Comfort food with out meats "works" for us! Thank You, And Sew it goes----Laura and Family

When I went to Italy on my honeymoon, as a thank you for much hospitality enjoyed I made my two Italian sisters-in-law a pot of minestrone. It was ready and then I started to worry about having had the impudence to make minestrone for two Italian housewives. My sister-in-law leaned over and whispered to me, "Don't worry: I tasted it and it's GOOD". So I make mine a little differently from the various recipes described here. I start out making a pot of beans in broth, the beans seasoned with bay leaves, fresh sage, and garlic. After we've eaten beans for a day or two, the remaining broth and beans go into minestrone. For me, too, minestrone is more of a process than a recipe; I use what's available that time of year, but everything fresh, and with lots of vegetables. I get a big pot, put olive oil in the bottom, and begin cutting up vegetables and sauteing them. I always have onions and carrots. Others I commonly use include garlic, celery, turnips, potatoes, zucchini, green beens, cabbage, radicchio, tomatoes, dried mushrooms (these I prefer to use the crumbled pieces, soak them and just add the soaking water). I'd love to try parsnips, and scorzanera (black parsnips) are marvelous if you can find them. When the vegetables have all been sauted, add the beans and broth, tomatoes and mushroom soaking water if you're using them, more water, salt. Tomatoes are fresh in the summer, blanched, peeled, and chopped; I'll use bottled tomatoes or puree in winter, as the Italian kind are quite good. There should be fresh herbs (good dried is also okay) in moderation: parsley or thyme or sage or basil; always a couple of bay leaves; rosemary in the winter. I don't use stock or cubes, or wine, and my minestrone is vegetarian and doesn't have the rind of Parmesan, though I think rind or meat could help make a good minestrone. But abundant fresh vegetables are the heart and soul of the dish. For the pasta, I make the pot of soup, then ladle out as much as is going to be eaten at that meal into a smaller pot and cook the pasta in that soup. Cooked and reheated pasta in minestrone is nasty. You can also use rice or just put bread in it. We generally add Parmesan to our portions once they're in our bowls, not while the soup is cooking. P.S. I think I should talk quantities. Were I to make minestrone tomorrow, the ingredients would be roughly as follows: enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a 6 qt. pot 1 lg. onion 2-3 stalks of celery 1-2 turnips 3-4 carrots, more if small a small head of radicchio 1-2 med. potatoes 1/2-1 cup tomato puree soaking water from ca. 1/4 cup porcini mushroom fragments 1-1 1/2 qts. beans and broth 2 bay leaves about 1 tsp. fresh rosemary salt short pasta; I like mezze penne or fusilli This post was edited by melissa_thefarm on Sun, Dec 28, 14 at 4:07

I also have a canister full of farro, which I have not used as planned, so I tried to make it last night in the instapot. It turned out with an awful, gummy consistency, not like individual grains I could use in a salad. I mixed it half and half with some leftover brown rice I had in the fridge, and used it as a base for stuffed peppers. The stuffing had a lot of vegetables and I used fake meat crumbles subbing for the ground turkey that was in the recipe. I also added reconstituted sundried tomatoes and some Parmasan and mixed Italian cheese. Topped with Italian style bread crumbs mixed with evoo. After sauteeing the vegetables to soften, I mixed them in with the pre-cooked farro and rice, and then cooked that over low heat to further dry it out from its gumminess. The dish turned out very good, despite the grain textures being less than ideal. The flavor was very good. This gummy grain and rice issue has plagued me my whole cooking life. The main reason I bought the Instapot was for its grain and rice cooking features. We haven't had much luck in getting a grain that does not suffer from mushiness. Of course we rinse the gains before adding them, and do not stir them. Everything we can to minimize any bruising and starch release. Also use less water than the recipe calls for. Ironically, sticky barley seems better at cooking and retaining its individual grain structures. They just keep getting plumper and plumper rather than breaking down, lol.