Butter Bean Soup with Pancetta

Since the Pancetta has been ready, i've mainly just been hacking off little slabs, frying them up and eating them whole. I love the stuff, but i felt i needed to be a bit more creative with it. I used it as the base for a Lasagne with no other meat in it and it added a real depth of flavour to the dish and then i made this soup for lunch. The soup was tasty and rich and the garnishes added the required crunch and salt hits to take it to the next level.

4 thick slices of Pancetta

300g Dried butter beans

1 litre Chicken stock

1 Medium onion
1 Large Carrot
1 Celery rib
2 Garlic cloves
Thyme
Parsley
Bay leaf
Chives
Butter
Croutons and Bread



First up, soak your butter beans overnight in plenty of cold water. The next day cook the beans until tender. I used a pressure cooker for 4 minutes using the information from this table i found online (4 minutes instead of an hour! I am really starting to see the benefits of this pressure cooker). I cooked my beans in the stock so as not to dilute the flavour of the soup. Anyway, in the meantime fry the slices of pancetta in a little oil until crisp. Quite a bit of fat will render out which is what we are after. Remove the crispy pancetta and reserve then fry off the onions, carrot and celery in the fat. When they are softening up add in the thyme, parsley stalks, garlic and some salt and pepper. Add the tender beans and stock to the onions etc, pop in the bay leaf and cook for a further 5 mins. Remove the bay leaf and blitz the soup with your preferred method, i used a stick blender, stir through the chopped fresh herbs, enrich with a knob of butter then season to taste. The bacon may need quickly crisping again if it has gone soft then throw the croutons and meat on top and serve.