Escarole and Bean Soup Recipe

Rinse the canned cannellini beans, reserve 1 cup of the beans and set aside.

In a soup pot over medium heat, add the cannellini beans (holding back 1 cup). Add olive oil, bay leaves and half a cup of chicken broth to the soup pot. Stir well. Add the reserved cup of cannellini beans and remaining half cup of chicken broth to a food processor and mix until creamy. Add this creamy bean mixture to the soup pot and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, wash and cut your escarole. Add the escarole to the bean pot along with salt, and a little fresh ground pepper to taste and cook until escarole is tender about 10 minutes. Do not boil, just cook on a medium heat.

In a small frying pan, heat extra virgin olive oil and add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook for about 1 minute or so just to release the flavor of the garlic and pepper flakes - do not brown the garlic. Add this to the beans and escarole and stir. If soup is too thick, add a little more chicken broth. Cook another 3 minutes.

Turn off the heat and allow to sit on the stove for a few minutes before serving.

Serve with crusty Italian bread. Yield: serves 4 Notes: This is truly a 30 minute meal since you can prepare some of the ingredients while the first half of the soup is cooking.