1. Melt the butter in a large dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until it renders its fat, 3 to 5 minutes.  Remove the bacon, drain, crumble into small pieces, and reserve for later.  Add the onion, fennel, leek, celery and garlic to the bacon fat and season with salt and pepper.  Toss in the herbs and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the sunchokes and cook for 15-20 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

2. Pour in the chicken stock, add the potato and the salt, and bring the mixture to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming the foam from the surface.  Discard the herbs.

3. Using an immersion blender (or transferring the soup to a regular blender in batches), puree the soup until it is very smooth.  Strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve into a large saucepan and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add the cream to the soup and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and keep the soup warm while you make the croutons.

Croutons

Warm the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the diced bread, sage, and garlic, and season with salt and pepper.  Sauté until the bread is crisp and golden brown.  Discard the garlic and drain the croutons on a paper towel.  Reserve the sage leaves for garnishing the soup.

To Serve

Ladle the soup into warm bowls and top each serving with some of the diced bacon, a few croutons and some strands of crisped sage.

Read the original on: The Date Dish