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Creamy White Bean Soup with Sausage

You can easily turn this into a vegetarian meal by using vegetable broth and frying up croutons in olive oil in place of the crumbled sausage.
Serves 6 to 8 (Makes about 9 cups)

2 cups dried cannellinni or Great Northern beans, soaked for at least 8 hours in cold water
1 garlic clove, smashed
2 leafy sprigs sage or rosemary (optional)
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 heaping teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste

For the soup:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery rib, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth (low-sodium if store-bought), or as needed
1 pound spicy fresh pork sausage, such as Italian or Mexican chiorizo
1/2 cup heavy cream

Drain and rinse the beans. Transfer them to a heavy saucepan and cover with cold water by about 2 inches (about 6 cups of water). Add the garlic, bay leaf, herb sprigs (if using), and olive oil. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, and cook, adjusting the heat so the liquid never boils, until the beans are tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt. If not making soup right away, let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate the beans in the cooking liquid for up to 2 days.

To make the soup: Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid, and discarding the bay leaf and any woody stems from the herbs. You should have about 2 cups of cooking liquid.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery. Season with salt and pepper, and sauté until beginning to soften but not at all brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and 1 teaspoon of the fresh thyme, and sauté until fragrant, another 2 minutes. Add enough broth to the reserved bean cooking liquid to equal 6 cups. Add the beans to the pot along with the bean and chicken broth. Simmer gently until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Let the soup cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fry the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, crumbling it with a wooden spoon as it cooks, and set aside on a paper-towel lined plate to drain.

Remove a heaping cup of beans from the soup and set aside. Puree the remaining soup until smooth in a blender or with an immersion blender. If you used a blender, wipe out the pot and return the soup to it. Return the reserved beans to the soup along with the heavy cream. Reheat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in warm bowls garnishing each bowl with sausage and a pinch of the remaining thyme.