Pasta, Bean and Italian Sausage Soup

Since I can remember I’ve been a huge lover of soup. It didn’t matter what kind of soup it was – I liked it. That included Split Pea, Chili, Lentil Soup…. Fortunately, I wasn’t that familiar with canned soups since my Sicilian mom prepared most of her dishes from scratch. My favorite soups were the ones she and her sisters used to make that typically included some kind of meat, vegetables, pasta and lots of parmesan cheese. Of course one of my favorites was Pasta Fagioli, and this simple soup that I’ve prepared here sort of reminds me of Pasta Fagioli with the abundance of Italian Sausage, beans and pasta. If you want a good recipe for Pasta Fagioli, you might want to try this recipe from Giada De Laurentis from the Food Network. I like the recipe below because it’s a quick treat and a really great comfort food for you and your family.

(Serves several)

Ingredients:

– 6 Italian Sausage – slice the casing and use the ground pork
– 1 can red kidney beans – drained
– 1/2 lb or more of pasta shells (or whatever pasta you prefer)
– 2 cups chicken stock/broth – I prefer to prepare my own stock, but you can use canned
– 2 cups water
– 2 cups of fresh tomatoes (blanch and then peel before chopping) – otherwise 1 can of whole tomatoes, chopped
– 1 white onion – roughly chopped
– 2 cups celery – roughly chopped
– 3 or more – carrots – sliced
– 1 tbls – freshly minced garlic
– about 3 tbls – olive oil
– 1 tsp – dried fennel
– 1 tsp – dried basil (or you can use 4-5 leaves of fresh, of course)
– salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
– freshly grated parmesan cheese to top each bowl of soup

Instructions:

• After removing sausage from casing, lightly brown sausage in a couple tablespoons of olive oil in large pot.
• Also, cook the pasta in separate pot according to package directions and set aside after tossing with a little butter to make sure that the pasta doesn’t stick together.
• After sausage is browned, remove from pot (let the juices remain in the pot) and set aside.
• In the remaining oil, saute onion and celery, adding a little salt. You can also add the oregano, basil and fennel at this point.
• After cooking for about 4 minutes, add the garlic for about 1 minute.
• Now drip some of the tomato juice before adding the tomatoes just to get all the flavors dancing together.
• Add the tomatoes and simmer for another few minutes.
• Add the chicken stock and, again, cook for another couple minutes.
• Now you can add the kidney beans and return the sausage to the pot and add bring to a heavy simmer. You can also add the carrots now.
• Add water to create the consistency that you prefer. For example, if you want a lot of broth – add more water. If you prefer that the soup is chunkier (or meatier), add less. (Remember that you will also be adding pasta to each individual soup bowl).
• Once you have all the ingredients in the pot, let lightly simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
• When it’s ready, you’ll want to serve by individual bowls: put about a handful of pasta shells at the bottom of an empty soup bowl. Ladle out some of the meat and vegatables from the soup and then ladle some of the broth over the top. Now sprinkle the parmesan cheese at the top and some ground pepper (and fresh parsley if you like).

Serving suggestion: This soup is great on cold night with your favorite bread warmed in the oven. Because it has meat, veggies and pasta – it’s sort of like a whole meal in one bowl!

Enjoy!