Ingredients:

• 2 each 2-3 pound chickens
• 1 bunch celery
• 2 white sweet onions, peeled and quartered
• 8 carrots
• 1 bunch curly parsley
• 1 head chopped fennel
• 1 cup peeled garlic
• 1 lb. dried pasta- your choice
• 1lb. sliced smoked bacon
• 1lb. fresh shucked green peas
• 2 cans sweet corn, or 5 ears shucked sweet corn
• 2 cans cooked white beans

Method:

• Cut chicken into quarters and rinse with cold water.
• Place the ends of the celery and carrots, the heart of the fennel, and all of the white onions into a pot along with the chicken and the parsley.
• Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
• Remove the chicken from the broth and cool.
• Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove all the meat from the bones. Throw the bones and skin in the garbage and shred the chicken.
• Remove all of the other vegetable pieces from the broth.

You now have the perfect base for your soup!

• Add the chopped carrots, celery,  and fennel to the broth and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add the sweet peas, sweet corn, and white beans. (*note: If you are using canned corn and beans, rinse them with cold water in a strainer.)
• Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
• In a separate sauté pan, render sliced and chopped bacon until crispy. Discard half the fat and then add the crisp bacon and fat to the soup.
• In a separate pot of salted boiling water, cook the small pasta pieces, strain an then add to the soup. (*note: If you are not eating all of the soup in one sitting, just add a small amount of cooked pasta to the soup and save the remaining pasta in a separate bowl for the next time you serve the soup. Otherwise, the pasta will continue to grow, get mushy and soak up all of your soup.)
• Season with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper and add the shredded chicken.

Serve with roasted olive oil soaked sourdough bread and a good bottle of dry white wine!

Enjoy!