Start by heating olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. While it’s heating, dice your onion, carrots, and celery into pieces about the size of your pinky fingernail – they should be small enough to fit on a soup spoon but not so tiny they’ll disappear.

Add ground beef to the hot pot. Break it up with a wooden spoon into small pieces as it cooks – you want bits about the size of a dime. Cook until the meat is no longer pink and you start seeing some brown crispy bits on the bottom of the pot, about 7-8 minutes.

Without removing the beef, add diced onion, carrots, and celery to the pot. Cook everything together until the onions start to turn translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. You’ll notice the veggies will pick up all those tasty brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

Stir in the minced garlic and cook for just about 30 seconds, until you can really smell it – any longer and it might burn and taste bitter.

Add the tomato paste and stir it around for about a minute. It’ll coat everything and might stick to the bottom a bit – that’s good! This helps develop a deeper flavor.

Pour in the beef broth, diced tomatoes (juice and all), and Worcestershire sauce. Add your dried basil, oregano, and bay leaf. Give everything a good stir, scraping the bottom of the pot to get up any stuck bits – that’s pure flavor!

Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Let it bubble away gently, partially covered, for about 15-20 minutes. This gives the vegetables time to soften and the flavors to meld.

Add the elbow macaroni and stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick together. Cook until the pasta is tender but still has a little bite, about 8-10 minutes. The pasta will continue cooking a bit even after you turn off the heat, so it’s better to err on the firmer side.

Give it a taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Different beef broths have different salt levels, so start with a little and add more until the flavors really pop.

Let the soup rest for about 5 minutes before serving – this helps the broth thicken slightly and lets the pasta absorb some of those good flavors. The soup’s ready when you can see the broth has turned slightly creamy from the starch in the pasta.