Pasta E Fagioli With Sausage

Currently listening to From Above by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby


A quick internet search will reveal that there are many different versions of this dish running around Italy. It's apparently typically known as a peasant dish, but it's Italian and has cannellini beans which Charlee and I are huge fans of. Most versions are soupy, but I think I prefer less liquid, which makes it more of a pasta dish. This version came from NPR, but I'm not one to stick to a recipe word for word, and having made this a few times now, I'm confident I can have a go at this from memory.

Salt and Pepper
2 cups cannellini beans
5 cups of water
6-8 stems of thyme
4-6 cloves of garlic smashed and roughly chopped
2 Sage leaves minced
Olive oil
4 sausages sliced (any sweet Italian sausage will work)
4 Roma tomatoes seeded, chopped
1 pound of mini fusilli pasta, or something similar
1/2 to 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Simmer the beans for 40 minutes in a pot with the water, half the garlic, the thyme and pepper. Once cooked soft, drain the beans, (saving the water), remove the thyme stems, and season with salt. Meanwhile cook your pasta.

In a pan heat up about 1/3 cup of olive oil, and cook the remaining garlic and sage for about a minute on medium low heat. Add the tomatoes, sausage, and 1/2 to 1 cup of the water from the beans. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the beans to the tomatoes and sausage and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Mix the pasta with the beans and sausage, toss with salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar to taste. If you want a soupier dish add more of the water from the beans, but I prefer mine less soupy. Looking back, some shredded parm would also top this off well.

Honestly, the only reason I'm posting this is because I'm lazy and can't be arsed to dig through all my recipe books to write this down.