<span style="font-size: medium; color: #008000;"><strong><em>Editor's Note:  This is a guest post Mary-Alice D. aka Mom. </em></strong></span>

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<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/P9230020.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-8019" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/P9230020-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>Hello everyone,  I am Michelle's mom, Mary-Alice.  Michelle asked me to be a guest blogger for today.     So what better way to keep the magic of Tuscany simmering than to simmer a big pot of Tuscan Bean Soup.

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Michelle flew home from Italy via Houston.  We had kept the grandpup, Bella, here with us while her mom was biking her way through the magic of Tuscany.  Michelle had to fly here to pick up little Bella and also spend a few days with her family.

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She arrived here and was going to spend a few days with us which was a very good thing since she had a massive headache from her head colliding with the pavement in the beautiful Tuscan countryside.  She needed rest and some good nourishing food.

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She told me she had tasted the best bean soup in the world in Tuscany.  Would I please make a pot of it, Momma Mia.  She might have said Momma Mia to add to the entire Tuscan experience.   She didn't yet have the exact recipe for it but Fabio 1 was working on getting it for her.  Instead she had a little cookbook that she purchased while there and surely there was a bean soup in it that we could use.  So, we opened her book, perused the recipes and found one.  A quick trip to Whole Foods aka Whole Paycheck to purchase all the fresh ingredients and we were ready to cook.  We even bought several loaves of their very best Chiabatta bread to have with the luscious soup and some expensive aged Parmesan Cheese to grate on top of the soup.

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I chopped, sautéed, simmered and made the biggest honking pot of Tuscan Bean Soup on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.  The rest of the family was invited over  to eat dinner that night.  Michelle's younger sister, Jennie,  the World's Best Son-In-Law, World's Most Precious Granddaughter and World's Most Precious Grandson arrived with great anticipation and tummies waiting to be filled and partake of this Tuscan feast!

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Great bowls of steaming soup were ladled out and set before the eager diners and then it happened.  It was not magical and it was basically tasteless!  Now I make the Portuguese version of this soup.  Portuguese babies are weaned from their mother's milk (mine were bottle fed) on Portuguese Bean Soup which is heaven in a bowl!  What went wrong?  Well I scanned the ingredients and I did put everything in that pot that the recipe called for.  However, there was nothing in that recipe to give it the flavor that would roll across the taste buds and make us groan with pleasure.  It was a huge disappointment!

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Michelle and I were discussing how tasteless this soup actually was and World's Most Precious  Grandson who I might add now towers over me overheard us.  He said, "Nana, I didn't want to say anything to hurt your feelings but it really didn't have any taste."   I told him thank you for sparing my feelings but all I did was follow the recipe.  I consider myself a good cook and it really bothered me that this was such an abysmal failure!  I vowed to try and fix this soup and make it yummy.  I would go to work on it again in a day or two by adding a few magic ingredients to the pot.

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Michelle flew home the next day leaving me in tears because I knew I would miss her and Bella terribly.  The next time I will see them will be Christmas.  I was also very worried about her massive headache.  I wanted her to go to urgent care here but she said no and that she would see a doctor at home if she continued to feel so miserable.  We just chalked it up to a really bad case of jet lag!  Little did we know that she had suffered a concussion!

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The day after Michelle left for home  I vowed to fix that soup.  I needed to doctor it up and make it taste good.  I got out the leftover soup, poured it into my soup pot and brought it to a simmer.  I stirred in a big blob of Better  Than Boullon Chicken Base.  I opened my pantry closet up to see what else I had in there that I could add to the pot to make it speak to our taste buds.  Eureka!!!  I had a package of precooked bacon.  According to my grandson, everything tastes better with bacon.  Did you know you can even find chocolate bars with bacon!  I pulled out several slices and cut them up into bite size pieces and threw that in the pot.  It smelled divine simmering away.  I served up two bowls one for me and one for World's Best Husband aka Saint Larry to many of our friends and family members.  We sat down lifted the spoons to our lips and then it happened..........Magic in a bowl of hot steaming Tuscan Bean Soup......with a Portuguese twist!  Buon Appetito!

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Here is the recipe for the soup which I have changed to make a much tastier version of it. Please note that when I made it I had to double it to feed the crowd at my house.

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<span style="color: #008000; font-size: medium;"><strong>Tuscan Bean and Escarole Soup (Fajioli &amp; Scarole)</strong></span>

<span style="color: #008000; font-size: medium;"><strong>Cannellini Beans and Escarole</strong></span>

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Ingredients:

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3 large escarole heads (about 2.5 lbs.)

2 cans (15 oz. each) Cannellini Beans

60 ounces chicken stock (use Swanson lower sodium)

2 - 3 tablespoons of Better Than Bullion Chicken Base (It can be found by the bullion in the soup aisle)

1 large stalk celery chopped in small pieces

1 large carrot chopped fine

1 medium onion chopped fine

3 large garlic cloves (peeled and crushed)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (look on the label.  Anything under .8 acidity is good)

1 tsp dried red Pepperoncini flakes (red pepper flakes)

salt and pepper (added to your bowl of soup)

1 entire package of the precooked bacon slices cut up into bite sized pieces.  (since it is already cooked just cut them up and put in the pot.

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In a large soup pot saute' the onion, garlic and red pepper flakes until a nice golden color.  Then add the chicken stock to this and the cut up bacon.  While that is coming to a boil clean and chop up your carrot and celery.  Add that to the pot.  Let simmer one hour.

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Drain and rinse your beans and add to the pot.  Simmer for 45 minutes.   When that has cooked take a potato masher or an immersion blender and puree right in the pot a small amount of the beans to make the broth a little thicker.  Don't puree it all just about a third or a little more.

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In the meantime clean your escarole by removing the outer leaves and discarding.  Wash and rinse well.  Chop up the escarole.  This looks like a tremendous amount of Escarole but believe me it will boil down to nothing.

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After the beans have simmered in the broth for 45 minutes and you have done the pureeing put in the escarole.  Cover and cook approx 15 - 20 minutes or until tender.

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Ladle into soup bowls drizzle a little olive oil on top and salt and pepper to your taste.

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Serve with a nice artisan bread and a dipping oil* or bread and butter (real butter).    Don't ruin the experience by using margarine.

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*Dipping oil:

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Slice 3 to 4 cloves garlic

1/2  tsp sea salt

1 tsp. fresh ground coarse pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 cup good Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil (look on the label.  Anything under .8 acidity is good)

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Pour the olive oil in a saute' pan.  Add the salt, ground pepper and herbs and garlic.  Saute' until the garlic turns a nice golden color.  Turn off the heat and let sit for 1 hour.  Remove the garlic and pour into a dish to serve with bread.

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Michelle, this is a link to a picture of the Better Than Bullion Chicken Base that I used:

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http://www.superiortouch.com/uploads/products/product-31.jpg