Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!

(And fifteen bonus points to the first to correctly reference the allusion)

I made a really good soup over the weekend. The recipe is loosely based on the "Pea-Bean Alphabet Soup" from the Winnie the Pooh Cookbook (which I talked about here as one of the first cookbooks I ever owned). It's somewhat similar to pasta e fagioli but the seasonings (at least the ones I used) are more Tex-Mex than Italian. You could use ditalini or those tiny tube shaped pasta if you can't find alphabets (which I do notice are harder to find in the stores and less common than when I was a child).

The soup goes something like this (I'm going to give how I actually made it)

1 1/2 cups of mixed dry beans and split peas (the book gives specific instructions on the ratio of beans to peas. I just bought one of those "Hambeens" combination bags you can find at most any grocery)

Soak the beans overnight (The book says only 3 hours; I cannot imagine that working with the given cooking time).

Then, pour off the soaking water, rinse the beans, and cover with 2 quarts of water.

Then, put in whatever "seasoning meat" you're going to use. The book called for a beef marrow-bone and a hambone, but I couldn't find a ham bone at the grocery (and the idea of eating marrow kind of doesn't appeal to me), so I used hamhocks (which I COULD find) instead. I parboiled the hamhocks for 20 minutes to make them less salty.

Add 2 cups of canned tomatoes. (This book was written a while back - I cannot find a can at the store that contains exactly 2 cups. I actually put in 2 cans - almost 4 cups - next time I will only use one.)

Add a whole chopped onion. And six stalks of chopped parsley (I used dry, not having any fresh)

Let the whole mess simmer for at least 2 hours (that's what the book said; it took about 3 h 15 min of cooking to get the beans the texture I wanted - and that's after an overnight soak).

Take out the meat bones. If you want, pick off the meat and add it to the soup. (I didn't - the hamhocks were awfully fatty and they still had their skin on them and I just couldn't face dissecting them).

Add 1/2 cup of dry alphabet noodles (I added nearly a cup and I think I like it better with the greater amount of noodles. You will probably need to add more water if you do that). Simmer for 10-12 more minutes.

Season to taste. The book recommends salt and pepper but I found that cumin and a small amount of cayenne enhanced the flavor much better.

I also added a chopped up kielbasa with the noodles and that was a good addition.

It makes a HUGE amount - like 14 cups. I am going to have to freeze some. It is a very filling soup as well as being pretty economical. (And I suspect you could make it just as well without the meat, if you perhaps used a vegetable broth to start or put more vegetables and maybe a bouquet garni in there during part of the simmer-time).

Like many soups, this one is even better the next day after sitting in the fridge. (Which is a good thing, because as I said - it makes 14 cups.)