This recipe originally appeared in the New York Times. Seems too simple to be this delicious but it is a wonderful marriage of flavors. Red Wine Pinto Beans with Smoky Bacon Ingredients: 1/2# smoky bacon, diced 1 large onion, peeled and diced 2 celery stalks, diced 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 large sprigs rosemary 1# dried pinto beans, soaked overnight 1 T. coarse kosher salt 2 c. dry red wine Optional toppings: olive oil, coarsely grated Parmesan, black pepper or red pepper flakes In the bottom of a large pot over medium-high heat, brown bacon until golden, about 5 minutes. (I like to remove the crisp bacon and add it back at the end). Stir in onion, celery, carrots, garlic and rosemary. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegies are tender, 5-7 minutes. Drain beans and add to pot along with 1 T. salt. Pour in enough water to just cover the beans (about 7-8 cups). Bring liquid to a boil; reduce heat and simmer gently until beans are just tender, 45 mins - 1 hour. Meanwhile, in a small pot over medium heat, simmer wine until it is reduced to 2/3 cup, 20-30 mins. Remove rosemary branches from bean pot and discard them. Pour wine into beans and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10-20 mins. longer to meld flavors and thicken broth to taste. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan, if desired; add more salt and black or red pepper to taste.

Here are a couple of tasty variations in different colors: Red Lentil Soup With Lemon (NY Times 1/9/08) Time: 45 minutes 3 tablespoons olive oil, more for drizzling 1 large onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper Pinch of ground chili powder or cayenne, more to taste 1 quart chicken or vegetable broth 1 cup red lentils 1 large carrot, peeled and diced Juice of 1/2 lemon, more to taste 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro. 1. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes. 2. Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for 2 minutes longer. 3. Add broth, 2 cups water, lentils and carrot. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover pot and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary. 4. Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky. 5. Reheat soup if necessary, then stir in lemon juice and cilantro. Serve soup drizzled with good olive oil and dusted lightly with chili powder if desired. Yield: 4 servings. ============================================================ Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup (www.wholefoods.com) 1 cup yellow split peas 1 quart vegetable broth 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½-inch slices 7 whole green cardamom pods 1Â2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or canola oil 1 medium yellow onion, chopped 1 teaspoon garam masala 1/2Â1 teaspoon ground cumin lemon Cayenne pepper sea salt, to taste ground pepper, to taste Soak the peas in water to cover overnight. Drain and rinse. Bring vegetable broth to a boil in a medium pot. Add soaked peas, sweet potato slices and cardamom pods. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Simmer for an hour. (N.B. I skipped the soaking and gave the split peas a 15 minute head start and simmered until the peas and potato were falling apart -- less than an hour) Heat ghee in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions, garam masala and cumin and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. When sweet potatoes and peas are tender, add the spiced onions to the pot. Stir and cook another 5 minutes. Remove cardamom pods and season the soup with lemon, cayenne, salt, and pepper, as desired. Serves 4

I have made cream of 'shroom & green onion before, and it was quite tasty. I just subbed the white and light green parts to the initial simmer and puree, and then sliced the green tops thinly to add just before serving instead of cooking them with the extra mushrooms & celery. The powdered, dried mushrooms make for a richer mushroom flavor than many cream of mushroom soups. Rachel's Cream o' 'Shroom Soup 1 oz dried mushrooms (any variety will do, I like a combination of button and shiitake) 8 T butter 1 medium onion-diced 1 1/2 stalks celery-diced 8 oz fresh button mushrooms, diced 2 t white pepper 2 cloves garlic, smashed 3 T long grain rice (uncooked) 2 Qt chicken stock 1 Qt + 1 C half and half 3 T flour 1/2 C white wine or dry sherry 1 stalk celery-slice 1/2 onion-diced 8 oz fresh button mushrooms, sliced Put the dried mushrooms in an electric coffee/spice grinder and grind to a very fine powder. Heat 2 T butter in a non-stick stock pot over a medium heat. Saute the one medium diced onion, 1 1/2 c diced celery, diced mushrooms, white pepper and garlic until the onions are translucent and the celery changes color. Add the powdered mushroom and saute briefly. Add stock and rice, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Puree the stock and vegetables, add half and half and bring to a simmer again. In a small saute pan, make a roux by melting 3 T butter and 3 T flour over a med-high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture bubbles and turns a light golden color. Whisk the roux into the soup, beating vigorously to prevent lumping. In a large saute pan, heat 3 T butter over a medium heat. Add the remaining 1/2 onion, stalk of celery and sliced mushrooms. Saute until onions are translucent and increase heat to med-high. Add the wine or sherry and cook for 3 minutes. Add the vegetables to the soup and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time to prevent scorching. This soup, like most, benefits from sitting for at least a couple of hours (overnight is better) before reheating to serve, so the flavors can develop.

It's similar but not quite. Mulligatawny Soup 1/2 stick of butter 1 medium onion, sliced 1 carrot, diced 2 stalks of celery, diced 1 green pepper, diced 1 granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced 2 C. cooked chicken, shredded 2 whole cloves 1 tsp. curry pinch of nutmeg (I use freshly grated) 2 sprigs parsley, finely chopped 21 oz. chicken broth 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes salt and pepper to taste Melt butter of medium heat. Saute sliced onion until soft. Add carrots, pepper, celery, apple and chicken. Saute for 10 minutes Until veggies are soft. Add broth, tomatoes, parsley and seasonings. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook 30 minutes. Remove cloves before serving. I double the recipe because I like to freeze soups for future use. When I double the recipe, I use one can of crushed tomatoes and one can of whole tomatoes, sieved or put through the food mill. It gives me the consistency I like. I suppose you could leave out the celery, I know you don't like celery but celery, carrots and onions are the base of most soups. I don't think there's a strong celery flavor with all these seasonings because the flavors all marry together. Try it, I think you will like it. It's not DH's fav but he doesn't like the apples. I think when I serve it to him, I will pick out the apples. They've already done their job and he'll never know.