It's rainy today. Both girlies are sick, especially Wallie who sounds like a wounded animal when she cries. J. took over this morning and I got to sleep in until 10AM. I'm still in my pajamas. It's a day for making and eating soup.
CITYMAMA'S NAVY BEAN SOUP
Take some rinsed, soaked navy beans, throw them in a pot with a ham hock. Add water so it comes 2 inches above the beans. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for one hour. Try not to stir too often—you don't want to smash up the beans.
In a separate pot sauté 1/2 a Texas Sweet onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 diced carrot, 2 stalks of celery, and 1 sage leaf in olive oil until carrots and onions are soft. Add 3 seeded, chopped plum tomatoes and further cook until those begin to caramelize along with the carrot and onion. Remove sage leaf. (You could use bay leaf instead of sage, but I like sage in this.)
When beans have cooked, ladle beans and broth into the pot containing the sauteed veggies. Remove any meat from the ham hock and add that to the soup as well. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Bring to a simmer and let cook gently for about 10 minutes. You want the beans to remain whole, toothsome but tender. (Tomorrow I will puree leftovers and make a thicker bean soup.)
Ladle into bowls, garnish with curly or flat-leaf parsley (J. also likes freshly grated pecorino romano over his) and devour.
