I Went to Culinary School and All I Got Was This Stupid Inflamed Intestine

So, long story short, after a long weekend of eating various cuisines with my friend Logan, who is currently serving our country in Japan, I managed to develop some internal pain. After two trips to the ER this unfortunate turn of events has rendered me semi lifeless and pretty much stuck at home unable to eat solid foods for a few days. The unimportant are the details, the important is the food.

My cousin was gracious enough to make me some soup. It is a revitalized version of my grandfather's escarole and bean soup and very simple to make and quite delicious. I'm going to write her version because I ate it and it was great, and then give a couple of variations that sound like they might be pretty good.

Ingredients:
4oz onions, diced.
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 heads of escarole, torn into bite size pieces
5 cans of vegetable stock
15 ounce can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
olive oil
Good quality parmigiano-reggiano

The time tested delicious version:
Heat the olive oil on medium high in a tall stockpot or marmite.
Brown the garlic cloves on oil sides till dark brown, but not black, and remove them from the pan. Now add the onions and cook until translucent. When nearly finished add the escarole. It will seem like a lot but will wilt down quickly and saute until fragrant and soft. Next comes the beans and vegetable stock. Simmer until flavors meld and season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Do not oversalt the soup, the cheese is quite salty and will complete the rest of the seasoning of the dish.  Serve in a shallow bowl with crusty italian bread and freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano on top.

Time tested and classic this dish is great and also vegetarian. Yummmm

For a few notches in the carnivorous belt you can:
-Start by sauteing some bacon lardons. I would use a bacon that isn't too smokey as to not overwhelm the other flavors. If you can't find any you can blanch the lardons a couple of times in boiling water to remove some of the smoky flavor.

-You can use homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock as well. Chicken stock is probably a little more authentic but the vegetable was great also.

-Another great thing is to make little meatballs of lamb, pork, veal, or beef and add them to the cooking liquid. Sausage would also work and you can add it to the recipe when you saute the lardons. If you add the sausage in the beginning, remove it after cooking and then reintroduce it at the end of the recipe so they don't dry out.

-For a more fresh presentation and to remove just a touch of bitterness from the escarole you can blanch the greens in boiling water for just a minute or two and shock them in cold water. This will lock in the bright green color and remove some of the bitterness. This can be used on all types of bitter greens.

 Hopefully someone will try out at least some version of this and let me know how it goes. My cousin was spot on and I burned through 2 quarts of this in a day. Delicious.