Instructions

1. Add 26 cups of water to an 8 quart stock pot. Rinse the beans and then add the to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let sit on the stove for 1 hour.
2. In the meantime, cut the ham off the ham bone and reserve. You’ll need about 4 cups of ham for this recipe, a little more or less is fine. Chop the onion and celery and set aside.
3. After the beans have soaked for an hour, add the ham bone to the pot along with the reserved ham, onions and celery. Pour in the tomato sauce and add the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir and bring to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and let the soup simmer for 2 hours. You can stir the soup a few times while it’s cooking, but it’s not totally necessary. 
4. Remove the ham bone from the soup and set aside. Pour in the whole box of elbow macaroni along with the reserved 4 cups of ham. (You can also trim off any ham that was left on the ham bone and add that back into the pot). Stir and cook covered for another 15 minutes. The soup will thicken as it sits – we usually let the soup sit on the stove top with the heat off for about 15 minutes before serving, but you can certainly enjoy right away. 
5. Garnish the soup with fresh black pepper and grated parmesan cheese if desired.