Imitation San Francisco Minestrone

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs beef soup bones

• 8 ounces pancetta, diced

• 8 cloves garlic

• 4 or 5 carrots, thick hunks

• Olive oil

• 1 yellow onion, diced

• 2 leeks, sliced thinly

• 2 shallots, sliced thinly

• 1 bunch chard, cut to bite size

• Fresh parsley

• Fresh basil

• Fresh rosemary

• 315 oz. cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

• 215 oz. cans fire roasted tomatoes, diced

• 3 bay leaves

• 1 tosp Italian seasoning

• 1 quart chicken stock

• 1 quart beef broth

• Water

• Parmesan cheese rind (optional)

• Small pasta shells

• 1 bunch spinach

• Fresh pesto

• Juice of 1/2 lemon

• Sugar, salt, black pepper to taste

Directions

Put the meat, garlic and carrots in a roasting pan - drizzle with olive oil - and throw in the broiler until browned.

Heat olive oil in pan and sauté yellow onion, leeks, and shallots until soft and beginning to brown. Remove from heat.

Remove the soup bones from the pan and set aside to cool. Add the garlic and carrots to the onion mixture, chop the meat tiny, and add the beef bones and chopped meats in with the onion/ carrot mixture.

•Add the rest of the fresh ingredients except the spinach, plus the beans, roasted tomatoes, lentils, bay leaves, seasoning and chicken/beef broth, cheese rind. Cover all with water and place in a slow cooker for 4 hours.

Separately, boil the pasta in a pot of salted water per package directions, but slightly undercook. Drain and set aside.

After 3 hours, remove the bones and purée 4 cups of the soup in a blender until smooth. Return to slow cooker, add zucchini.

Continue cooking for 1 hour more, adjust salt and pepper and add lemon juice. In a skillet, wilt the spinach separately and add to the bottom of a soup bowl with the cooked pasta, ladle the finished soup on top and serve with a spoonful of pesto on top.