Arete

This is a nice dinner for 2, with bread and salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried navy or Great Northern beans, soaked overnight
• bouquet garni (5 fresh thyme sprigs, 2 bay leaves, 1 rosemary sprig)
• 8 cups homemade chicken broth
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup of little elbows pasta
• 1 head curly leaf lettuce, cut into 1-inch strips (washed 1st, of course)
• 1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced

Combine beans, bouquet garni, and broth in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer, partially uncovered, for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the bouquet garni and discard. Put 2 cups of the broth and 1 cup of the beans into a blender, and puree.  Stir this back into the soup.  Measure how many cups of soup you have now.  If more than 5 cups, boil until you have 5 cups left. If less than 5 cups, add water to make it measure 5 cups.  Keep warm, and season with salt & pepper.  Cook the elbow macaroni separately, and, when done, drain and add to the bean soup.  Finally, saute the sliced garlic in some oil, add the lettuce and cook  and stir till lettuce wilts, about a minute or so. Add cooked lettuce to soup, simmer for 5 mins. more and ENJOY!

Recipe adapted from Winter Pasta/Summer Pasta by Grace Parisi, William Morrow & Co., New York, NY 1997, ISBN: 0-688-15213-9