Cream of Bean Soup

The snow is almost melted, but still it is totally cold outside. After the usual morning walk with my dog, I decided to cook a soup for lunch. After all nothing warms you better then a nice bowl of hot soup. First I was considering cooking a minestrone, but then I decided to go for a creamy bean soup with smoked lardo.


Ingredients:
200 g dried beans
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 carrot
1 parsley root
1 bay leaf
1 clove
2 twigs thyme
10 g butter
70 g lardo
300 ml chicken or vegetable stock
70 ml cream
salt, pepper


Peel vegetables and fry diced lardo in butter, then set the lardo aside. Add chopped vegetables to the fat together with the bay leaf, clove, thyme and sautee for about 5 minutes. Add the dried beans that were soaked in water the night before and pour enough water on it so that it is just covered. Cook it until the beans are soft. Remove the clove, the bay leaf and the thyme twigs, add a teaspoon of salt then puree. Add stock and puree it again, press it through a sieve and bring it to the boil with the cream, season and serve it with the fried lardo on top.