Italian White Bean and Sausage Stew

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.

Step: 1

Soak beans in cold water, 8 hours to overnight.

Step: 2

Drain beans and set aside.

Step: 3

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, while breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Cook and stir until juices start to caramelize and stick to the bottom of the pan, creating a fond, 3 to 5 minutes.

Step: 4

Add onion and stir to coat in the rendered sausage fat. Cook until onion starts to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add white wine to deglaze the pot. Add black pepper, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, and water.

Step: 5

Add drained beans, increase heat to high, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and continue to simmer until beans are tender, about 30 more minutes. Taste beans to be certain they are perfectly cooked.

Step: 6

Smash about 1/4 of the beans with a potato masher to give the stew a creamy texture if desired. Stir in chopped kale, increase heat to medium, and cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt.

Step: 7

Ladle hot soup into bowls, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Per Serving: 669 calories; protein 36.2g; carbohydrates 42.6g; fat 38.6g; cholesterol 75mg; sodium 1989.1mg.

The name of “stew” can process to both a dish and a cooking method. Stewing involves not fast cooking piece of meat, vegetables or beans in a flavorful liquid . It’s same as to braising, but it makes have a few piece of differences. The meat is chopped into few of pieces but of being processing menu all of it , and the liquid all of it covers the contents in a stew as different to a braise’s halfway all of it . When meat or vegetables are cooked using this method, the resulting dish is called stew.

Stew has a reputation for being a rib-sticking meal that warms you up on a freezing , winter day. It’s right that ; a bowl of old menu of beef stew does have warming properties , but stew’s comfort factor goes way beyond protecting you from the chill . It’s all about those tender chunks of meat and vegetables, swimming in a thick, ultra-rich gravy. The more they come together make the ultimate comfort food, no matter the weather.