This Portuguese bean soup is the big batch of comfort you make to warm your spirit or to make a busy week easy with a stash of soup that is hearty and satisfying, yet completely easy on the budget and your kitchen time. I try to always have a selection of sausages in the freezer, including some Portuguese-Hawaiian ones if I can, because they can make a meal so easy to pull together.
I did pick up smoked ham hocks–the broth is a bonus! In fact, that part is even easier if you want to do it a day ahead, chill it, remove any solid fat from the top, and the flavour of the smoky meat is hard to beat. This is a pantry-freezer kind of magic solution, and the soup does indeed improve overnight.
While completely doable in one relaxed day, I like to make broth ahead so I can see how it jells and remove any extra fat. The day we made the soup, we might have been a little impatient and hungry, so we had a bowl after just an hour, which was lovely, with fresh-baked Portuguese rolls, but the next day the flavours had indeed developed and it was even better (even for breakfast!). The cabbage was just right–not overcooked at all. Even though the macaroni swells a bit (and this may be counterintuitive to those who always cook their pasta al dente), it absorbs just the right level of the spices and doesn’t fall apart.
If you were using a GF pasta, you might cook it separately and only add per serving, since some gluten-free pastas tend to fall apart more than wheat will.