Mexican Fideo Soup with Pinto Beans

I love soup, I love easy soups, and I especially love dishes that hint of any Latin flavor, so the Mexican Fideo Soup with Pinto Beans (p159) was sure to be mine.

Since the recipe only called for 15.5 oz of beans, I used canned. I also followed the suggestion of using angel hair pasta if fideo wasn't available (which is wasn't). I also used fire-roasted diced tomatoes instead of crushed, as that's what I had on hand.

No surprise here, the soup didn't have enough flavor for us. It was "fine," but just a little flat and bland, which made it perfect for Grandma V. The flatness was resolved with an overnight stay in the fridge and the soup was much better in the flavor department the second day. However, there wasn't much liquid to the soup to begin with, and by the next day the pasta had absorbed what there was and it was basically spaghetti. So that's what I decided to call this one--Mexican spaghetti. It's good, and better with a hot sauce such as Cholula or perhaps one with chipotle flavor. It's worth making for its ease and use of pantry staples, and the next go round I will add more seasoning to make it more compatible with our tastes.

--The Divine Miss V