Marcella Hazen, I love you.

When you make Ms. Hazen's minestrone recipe for the first time, just follow it.

By follow it, I mean make the beef stock from scratch (though don't worry if it's just from bones - more than that seems excessive). I mean cook the cannellini beans yourself. Because really? Beyond that? You're not actually doing a whole hell of a lot.

So cook the beans and beef stock one day. After work. Throw them on the stove. It's no big deal - just do it when you're going to be hanging around.

If you're home the next day, cook the soup then. If not, throw the beans and stock in the freezer until you're ready to make her amazing soup (that's what I did today - I'm cooking my way through my freezer).

The rest of it takes not a whole hell of a lot of effort.

First you fry up an onion in butter and olive oil (less than she says - or hell - as much as she says!). Then add chopped up carrot. Then add chopped up celery. Proceed for tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes, whatever. No zucc? Add squash. No potatoes? Add sweet potatoes. Or omit. It's up to you! Just don't try and go too fast and (this is a mental note I need to apply every single time) don't be afraid to add SALT!!!

Once you've gone that far, add your "green."I used Savoy cabbage, as per the recipe, but you could use spinach or rapini or escarole or whatever you want!

Then simmer. For a really long time (2.5 hours - I'm serious!).

Then add your beans. Simmer for another half hour.

Add some grated parm. (If you had a rind kicking around, you should have thrown that in at the beginning, but if you didn't, it's ok.)

Marcella doesn't add pepper, but I do. And I have some particularly fresh peppercorns right now, and they were an amazing addition to this soup (ground, of course).

Damn. I've made this soup (with minor variations) about half a dozen times, and it NEVER fails to impress. I had a huge dinner, and have five more totally reasonable sized portions left. Sweet.