Pasta e fagiole with zucchini

"The making of good soup is quite an art, and many otherwise clever cooks do not possess the tour de main necessary to its successful preparation.  Either they overcomplicate the composition of the dish, or they attach only  minor importance to it, reserving their talents for the meal itself, and so it frequently happens that the soup does not correspond to the quality of the rest of the dishes; nevertheless, the quality of the soup should foretell that of the entire meal."
- - -  Madame Seignobos, Comment on Forme une Cuisinere, 1903

The meal my sibs and I most recall as being The Worst that my non-Italian mother (a good cook) made was pasta e fagiole.  It was awful.  Poor woman... none of us would eat it no matter how we were threatened.  She never made it again.