Lovely, hearty soup. We let it release for more like 35-40 minutes instead of 15 (because I needed to let the cornbread in the oven finish) and it turned out great. I recommend using the immersion blender as described, and the Parmesan cheese added lovely flavor. We used a ham hock.
I tweaked the recipe some, to adjust to our own tastes and what we had on hand:
-- instead of tomato paste we added a can of Rotel (tomatoes+chili peppers, chopped)
-- I subbed 1 cup of water with beef stock because we had it on hand and why not
-- Seasoning-wise I used bay leaves, a Mexican seasoning blend (approx 1 TB, maybe more), some spicy smoked paprika, some sweet smoked paprika, and a pinch of cayenne. After cooking, I added some Tabasco to my own bowl, but my husband didn't add any to his.
FYI, we didn't find that additional salt was needed.
