Beef and Red Wine Broth

I used this broth as a gift for friends to have on New Year's day.  I called it a "restorative":))  It's a great recipe from a great cook book, The Silver Palate Cook Book.  The cook book is a wonderful gift for newly weds.  I don't make beef stock/broth from scratch.  I use either the organic kind from either Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.  By the time you simmer all of these wonderful veggies in the broth, you have a dynamo of a sipping broth.  I made 4X the amount and it made about 6 quarts.  I also roughly chopped the vegetables.  You're going to strain them out so no need to be a perfectionist here.

4 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
8-10 garlic cloves (about 1/2 of a small head) peeled and chopped
3/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
5 cups good beef stock/broth
1 cup dry red wine (avoid any with oak hints)
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
If you so wish 1 cup small pasta (pastina, shells)
grated Parmesan

Melt the butter in a soup pot.  Add onions, carrots, parsnips and chopped garlic and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are tender and lightly colored, around 25 minutes.  Add chopped parsley, beef stock, and wine and season with salt and pepper.  Set over medium heat, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour.  If you want to add the pasta, cook about 15 minutes before soup is ready and add after soup has been strained.  Pour the soup through a fine strainer and discard the solids.  Return the broth to the pot, add pasta, if you wish, simmer for a few minutes.  Serve immediately with grated Parmesan.