There’s just something about this time of year that calls for a nice stew or soup for dinner. It’s not cold here in Fort Lauderdale, but I think my brain doesn’t know the difference. Maybe it’s constantly running the air conditioner that tricks me into thinking it’s cold? Nah! Still, I want soup, and this Creamy White Bean Soup With Rosemary & Pancetta sounds irresistible. Plus, I don’t think I have ever cooked with pancetta, bacon’s unsmoked cousin, so I’m excited to give this recipe a try.
A Tuscan inspired soup hearty enough to be a main course.
The Ingredients
The ingredients for this Creamy White Bean Soup With Rosemary & Pancetta are on the long-ish side, but nothing was difficult to find. I only had a few of the spices on hand, so I had to shop for most everything. However, nothing was difficult to find at my regular grocery store.
Onions, carrots, celery, etc. are everyday items for me. The only thing I wasn’t familiar with was pancetta. I’ve heard of it, but I’m not sure if I have ever cooked with it. Fortunately, I found a 4-ounce package of diced pancetta for $5.99. It was just barely enough for this recipe, so nothing went to waste.
FYI, I went with canned cannellini beans instead of going to the trouble of soaking and cooking dried beans. I have my limits, and that’s one of them. Why add hours to a recipe if you don’t have to?
Finally, I had half a loaf of homemade French bread, so I skipped buying Italian bread at the store. They’re so similar, and I found my French bread worked perfectly for croutons.
The Process
The first thing I noticed about this recipe was that it called for a stockpot. I have one, but I rarely use it. I prefer to make soup in a Dutch oven because it has shorter sides than a stockpot and that makes stirring and sauteeing easier. My stockpot is 8-quarts, so I was expecting a huge batch; however, I think my 5-quart Dutch oven would have worked (I’ll have to test the theory one of these days!).
Once the pot was sorted, I got started on my prep work. The pancetta was conveniently pre-diced, but the rest of the vegetables weren’t. No worries, though, because 14 minutes later, I had everything prepped and measured so I could get cooking.
The instructions were easy to follow, and I had a wonderful smelling soup simmering on my stove. That meant I was ready to get started on the croutons, so I grabbed a medium-sized skillet and got back to work.
The croutons were very simple and were done before the soup. I set them aside and a few minutes later the soup was ready to be pureed. I ladled half of it into a large mixing bowl and used an immersion blender to puree it. Then I returned it to the pot, gave it a good stir, and it was ready to serve up.
The total time spent on this recipe was 53 minutes, which was right in line with the 50 minutes listed.
