Hearty Navy Bean Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb dried navy beans
water
1 1/2 lbs smoked pork necks
6 cups water
4 slices bacon
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 -2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 -2 teaspoon pepper (or to taste)

Preparation

In a large pot, cover beans in about two inches of cold water. Bring to a rapid boil, and immediately turn off and take off the heat. Allow to soak for one hour.
While this is soaking, in another pot cover the pork neckbones with just enough water to cover (about 6 cups +/-) bring to a boil and simmer for the hour that the beans are soaking.
Drain beans, rinse and reserve. In the large pot, render fat from bacon and cook till well browned and crispy. Drain off all but about 1T of the bacon fat. Reserve crumbled bacon.
Add the onion, celery, carrot and bay leaf. Sautee until soft. Add beans and the broth from the neckbones. If needed, add more water, to cover beans (do not add salt at this time).
Pull any meat from the bones and add to the pot. Simmer beans and neck meat in broth about 40-45 minutes until beans are almost at desired tenderness. Add bacon, stir and check seasoning. This is the time you would add the salt and pepper to taste.
If you like a creamy consistency, you can pulse half or more of the mixture in the food processor, or use a submersion blender. Remove bayleaf before serving.