So for my first post I thought I try something that I've had in restaurants and really liked, but with a twist.
I got this recipe from Cooking.com, who in turn got it from Food and Wine magazine. Here is the recipe as originally written.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound mild Italian sausages
- 1 carrot, chopped fine
- 1 onion, chopped fine
- 1 rib celery, chopped fine
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 6 cups drained and rinsed canned kidney beans (three 19-ounce cans)
- 2 3/4 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup tubetti or other small macaroni
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Add the sausages and cook, turning, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove. When cool enough to handle, halve the sausages lengthwise and then cut crosswise into slices.
Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in the pot over moderately low heat. Add the carrot, onion, celery, garlic, and rosemary. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, about 10 minutes.
Puree 4 cups of the beans with 1 1/4cups of the broth in a blender or food processor. Add the puree to the pot along with the remaining1 1/2 cups broth, the whole beans, bay leaf, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes.
Stir in the pasta. Cook the soup over moderate heat, partially covered, stirring frequently, until the pasta is done, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Stir in the sausage and the pepper. Cook until the sausage is warmed through, about 1 minute.
RESULTS
Recently I had grilled a bunch of Hot Italian sausage, so I used that instead. I always think grilled meats taste better than pan-browned meats, and I prefer a little heat in my Italian sausage. This definitely had that. I also used mini shells, just because, and twice as many. I also doubled the garlic.
This recipe says it serves 4. I don't know who they were cooking for, but these must be 4 really hungry people. One fourth of this pot of soup is HUGE. I think this really serves 6-8.
And the note that it gets thick, they aren't kidding. If you don't eat this right away, or re-heat it later, you will definitely want to add more water or stock as it essentially turns to bean paste. But damn tasty bean paste.
One interesting thing happened while I was preparing this (read: oh shit, grab a towel), was when I was pureeing the beans. I dumped the beans in the food processor and then added the stock. Just as I was about to hit the 'on' button, I noticed that there were large puddles of liquid all over the counter. The stock had leeched its way up under the cuisinart blade and out of the bowl. Nice. Note to self, next time start processing the beans and add the stock through the feeder slowly.
I actually prefered this the next day, flavors have a chance to mingle more. Also, the amount of sausage in this recipe seemed too much. Don't get me wrong, I love sausage, but lets face it, no one really needs to eat 4 oz of sausage at ANY meal. When I do this again, I think I will reduce the sausage and add more water/stock at the beginning.
This is not diet food, but I've seen worse. And if you do cut the amount of sausage down, it really isn't that bad as a meal - which it is.
If you are a Weight Watcher, and if you assume 8 servings this is 10 points. The sausage alone counts for 5 of those 10 points so any reduction in the amount of sausage makes a big difference.
