Pasta e fagioli

Pasta and beans, nothing more complicated than that, and it is one of the cheapest full meals on this list. Mashing part of the beans into the broth turns it creamy without any cream, and short pasta cooked in the pot finishes it off as something closer to a loose pasta dish than a soup. Pick it over minestrone when the fridge is bare: a tin of borlotti, an onion, garlic, rosemary and a box of ditalini are enough. It thickens hard overnight, so loosen leftovers with a splash of water.