Rosemary White Bean Soup

From the book The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

Serves	6
Total Time	8 hours

Introduction

This makes a hearty, comforting soup.

Ingredients

	1	lb. dried white cannellini beans (see Note)
	4	cups sliced yellow onions (3 onions)
	¼	cup good olive oil
	2	garlic cloves, minced
	1	large branch fresh rosemary (6 to 7 inches)
	2	qt. chicken stock
	1	bay leaf
	2	tsp. kosher salt
	½	tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Steps

In a medium bowl, cover the beans with water by at least 1 inch and leave them in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Drain.
In a large stockpot over low to medium heat, sauté the onions with the olive oil until the onions are translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook over low heat for 3 more minutes.
Add the drained white beans, rosemary, chicken stock, and bay leaf. Cover, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the beans are very soft. Remove the rosemary branch and the bay leaf.
Pass the soup through the coarsest blade of a food mill, or place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until coarsely puréed.
Return the soup to the pot to reheat and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Notes

Culinate editor’s note: Depending on how large (and how old) your beans are, you may need to cook them twice as long as the recipe suggests. If you use smaller Great Northern, navy, or flageolet beans, instead of the larger cannellini beans called for, you can cut the soaking time in half. You can also use canned beans and skip the soaking stage entirely. For a thicker soup, cut back on the stock by as much as half.

This content is from the book The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten.