Boil potatoes the way you would for mashed potatoes. I like to use Yukon gold – they make the creamiest.
Meanwhile, in a soup pan, saute some finely chopped onion and minced garlic in butter for a couple of minutes. Since Katie liked the bacon in the soup, brown chopped bacon for this step and add in the onion, garlic, and chopped parsley (dried works too) and saute them in the bacon fat. Remove the bacon and set aside. Add enough more butter and flour to make a nice roux and cook until the flour taste is gone.
Create the soup base by adding half and half and some of the retained potato water in equal measures to the roux until you get the consistency of soup that you want. Season with salt, pepper, and whatever seasonings you like. I love to add in a bit more parsley flake, Lawreys Seasoned Salt, a dash of onion powder, and a bit of lemon pepper.
Drain the potatoes but save some of the potato water for the final soup step. Add in some butter, heavy cream, and grated mozzarella cheese while the potatoes are still hot and stir well until the potatoes are about double the size you want in the soup.
Add the potato mixture and drained bacon into the soup base. Adjust the consistency with retained potato water and do a final seasoning. Again, I really like ham chunks in this one too, so I brown the ham chunks in with the bacon – give it a try LOL