Italian White Bean and Sausage Stew

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Description

This comforting and substantial white bean and sausage stew is a soup that eats like a meal! Browning the sausage in a dry pan creates a beautiful fond that adds rich flavor. With beans, greens, and sausage, this stew is incredibly nutritious and warms you from the inside out. Serve with a hunk of crusty Italian bread.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups dry cannellini beans
  • 4 (6 ounce) Italian sausage links with garlic and fennel
  • 1 cup chopped yellow onion
  • ⅓ cup dry white wine
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 6 cups water, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
  • 4 cups chopped kale
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, or to taste
  • 6 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, or to taste
  • 6 pinches red pepper flakes

Instructions

  1. Soak beans in cold water
  2. 8 hours to overnight.
  3. Drain beans and set aside.
  4. Make a cut down the center of each sausage and peel off the casing. Transfer sausage into a dry soup pot over medium-high heat. Brown sausage
  5. while breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon
  6. 5 to 7 minutes. Cook and stir until juices start to caramelize and stick to the bottom of the pan
  7. creating a fond
  8. 3 to 5 minutes.
  9. Add onion and stir to coat in the rendered sausage fat. Cook until onion starts to turn translucent
  10. about 5 minutes. Add white wine to deglaze the pot. Add black pepper
  11. red pepper flakes
  12. bay leaf
  13. and water.
  14. Add drained beans
  15. increase heat to high
  16. and bring to a boil. Once boiling
  17. reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and continue to simmer until beans are tender
  18. about 30 more minutes. Taste beans to be certain they are perfectly cooked.
  19. Smash about 1/4 of the beans with a potato masher to give the stew a creamy texture if desired. Stir in chopped kale
  20. increase heat to medium
  21. and cook until tender
  22. 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt.
  23. Ladle hot soup into bowls
  24. drizzle with olive oil
  25. and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Total Time: 9 hrs 45 mins

Servings: 6

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