Rosemary White Bean Soup

What's cookin? I am always looking for really simple recipes with complex, rich flavor.

While white bean soup is a very Italian dish in origin, in the Midwest usually you think of white northern beans cooked in a slow cooker with a ham bone or a bit of fat back. Well, this soup is as rich in flavor, but no pork.

I usually don't use a recipe to make this dish, but keep it simply to garlic, olive oil, and cannellini beans (or white kidney beans). Just sauteing garlic, then adding beans; cooking for 20 minutes. Then serving over rustic bread.

Lauren recently gave me a recipe for Rosemary White Bean Soup from the Barefoot Contessa website, http://www.barefootcontessa.com

I started with her recipe but instead of 4 cups of onion; I just had one large sweet, yellow onion. I chopped this onion and sweated them till the just began to turn brown. I then used olive oil, cooking sherry, and butter, as opposed to just olive oil. Also, I didn't have the bay leaf, which I didn't miss even though I love what bay leaf adds.

The end result was creamy and very rich. I recommend. If you want me to provide a detailed recipe, just post the request.