White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup

I found this recipe on food52, a great blog site for home cooks that I've mentioned before. It's a great recipe for fall - I loved this soup's creaminess and depth of flavor.

White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup

30 oz cannellini beans

1/2 butternut squash

1/4 pound pancetta or bacon

1 sprig rosemary

4 garlic cloves (halved)

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 shallots (chopped) or one small onion

2 stalks celery (chopped)

1 carrot (chopped)

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 cup half and half

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash in half, long ways, and remove the seeds and pulp from the core. Rub some olive oil in, and put in the oven on a baking sheet. Let cook for about 30 minutes.

Heat some olive oil and butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Next add the pancetta (or bacon) and let it crisp up a bit. Next add shallots, celery and carrots (mirepoix). Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and let it cook for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are softened.

Add the rosemary and white beans to the mixture and let the beans soak up the flavors for about 5 minutes. Add a little more salt and pepper so that you're flavoring every layer. Add the sock to the pot, raise the heat and bring it up to a simmer. Add the garlic halves and let simmer for 10 minutes, until garlic is soft. Then turn down heat to low. Remove the squash from the oven, peel, and cube when cool enough to do so. Add to the soup pot.

Using a hand blender, puree the soup (if you don't have a hand blender, you can transfer it to a mixing bowl to cool then ladle it into a food processor or blender to puree). Mix in half and half and the parmesan cheese and keep on low heat until ready to serve.