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1
Important: Soak the beans the night before. Add salt to 4 quarts water, stir, and let soak overnight but never longer than 24 hours. Discard soaking water and rinse the beans.
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2
Place presoaked beans in a 4-quart saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil. Lower heat and cook on medium heat for at least 1 hour. If beans are older (which is always very hard to tell when you start cooking), you may need to adjust the cooking time (beans should be easy to mash with a fork when done).
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3
Prep the veggies while the beans are cooking.
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4
In a separate stockpot, heat olive oil and saute onions, garlic, chopped carrots, celery and sage leaves until they turn a nice golden color and brown bits develop on the bottom of the pan (stir often, don't let it burn!).
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5
Add chopped bacon and brown well while scraping brown bits off the bottom of the pot so it doesn't burn. Once bacon is nice and crisp, add potatoes and sliced carrots, and brown them as well. Make sure you keep scraping up the brown bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon and stir them into the saute.
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6
After potatoes are nice and brown, use a ladle to add about 4 to 5 cups of water that beans cooked in to the veggies; you will want to add just enough water to barely cover the vegetables in water. Stir well and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
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7
Once beans are cooked, drain and add to the veggies. Stir in well and season with salt and pepper. Cook everything together for 5 minutes.
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8
Transfer about 1/4 of the soup to a food processor and pulse until smooth; if you don't have a food processor, an immersion blender will also get the job done.
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9
Return creamed beans from food processor to the pot and blend in with the rest of the soup. Stir in the chopped fresh parsley and serve warm with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (freshly grated Parmesan cheese is also amazing).
