Tomato White Bean Soup

Yes, another soup -- I am always making them --until the weather gets warm --- in fact my first idea for a blog was to create a new soup each week --and call the blog Soup of the Week --- but I am glad that I went with Feast Everyday. For lunch, before we took off for the drive to see my Mom, I used up our leftovers to create this soup. The bacon base and the sweet paprika give it deeper flavor than a traditional tomato soup. The white beans are for body. Chop bacon and cook it on high heat to create brown bits in the pan, without burning it. We had only one shallot left, no onions. It would have been nice to add a whole onion at this point. Two big carrots, peeled and chopped, go in next. Keep cooking down the mixture, letting it brown. Add lots of sweet Hungarian paprika -probably 2 Tablespoons and some savory and/or thyme. After the mixture gets very brown and rich, use a little bit of water to deglaze the pan -- stir in all of the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Take your time and do this thoroughly to get every little bit of flavor into the soup. Next, I added the leftover white beans from our lamb dinner on Easter, and the baked beans from when the grandkids came over during the week. We also had a half of a large can of tomato puree leftover, so I put that in and another can and a half of water to cover. Let it cook for about half an hour on a low simmer until the flavors come together. Remove from the heat and blend it until smooth. Our chives are finally up. So, their onion-y-ness was a nice touch. No - those are not chopsticks ---We had it with crispy Italian breadsticks ---Tom says it was very good and that he liked it a lot. He is a tomato soup fan, so I am glad this one passed muster.>