Escarole Soup Approved by Dave

Saturday was a busy day. We woke up early and started chipping right away at our to do list. Dave, a good friend came over to help my husband with the bathroom plumbing and a few other things. Mid morning I headed out to the kitchen to start on this soup. I had picked up a head of escarole at the farmers market and wanted this veggie to be the main ingredient, the star if you will. The dish was started with the usual trinity combination of onions celery and carrots for the base and then layers of flavor were added from here. The last 10 minutes I added the precooked farro and the chopped escarole and finished the meal with chopped fresh parsley. The soup was done in less than an hour. We had lunch outside on the patio and the weather was very nice. Our friend loved the soup and even requested a second bowl. All in all it was a pretty successful day.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion (chopped)
3 stalks celery (sliced)
2 carrots (sliced)
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1/4 cup dry sherry
4 roma tomatoes (chopped)
1 15-ounce can organic cannellini beans
6 cups vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1 2-inch piece Parmesan rind
1/2 cup pre-cooked farro (picked this up at Trader Joe's)
1 large head escarole (chopped)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)

To prepare:

In a large soup pot, add olive oil, then onion, saute about 5 minutes, then add celery, carrots and salt. Saute another 5 minuter or so until veggies are just tender. Add the dry sherry and saute until all liquid has evaporated. Add tomatoes, beans, broth, bay leaves and Parmesan rind. Bring to a boil, then simmer another 20 minutes or so. Add farro and escarole. Simmer on medium high 10 minutes. Remove Parmesan rind. Garnish with chopped parsley.