Easy Italian Sausage and Beans recipe

Originally posted on March 2, 2010 as “Weeknight Friendly Gluten-Free Meals: Quick Italian Cassoulet”

If you could create a quick meal at home that tastes just as good as a restaurant, would you spend an extra couple of bucks?

I recently bought a jarred marinara sauce. Yes, I do buy jarred sauce but only if it’s good. Now don’t squawk but this probably costs $9 per jar. However, the flavor was so much better than the store-brand. To me the value is the flavor; it’s almost as good as my homemade sauce and the taste is fantastic. This was evidenced by the empty plates tonight after dinner. If you’d rather make your own sauce, here are two recipes.

Let’s talk about why this particular dish is so good. You can rehydrate dried beans in less than 3 hours (check this video to learn how) or you can make it easy and buy canned beans. For this dish, use cannellini or small white beans. The dish is incredibly simple and delicious. It’s really a matter of simmering the ingredients together. The reason it tasted so good was because of the quality of the sauce. It was worth it.

Below is a picture I took of a dish we had in Italy. I’m sure the beans, sausage and tomato sauce were fresh. If you want to take a cheap trip to Italy (ok, you’ll have to close your eyes and imagine), try the recipe below.

Quick Italian Sausage and Beans (Salsicce e Fagioli)

• 4 Italian pork or chicken sausages, cooked separately
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans cannellini or small white beans, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 jar (24 ounce) marinara sauce (or 2 – 3 cups homemade)

For finishing: 1/4 cup grated Italian cheese like parmesan, romano or peccorino

Optional: serve with gluten-free penne pasta, cooked separately
Optional: pesto or chopped parsley for garnish

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1. Cook sausage in a separate fry pan on medium low, turning every few minutes until mostly cooked, about 10-12 minutes. Sausage will cook more in the pot with the beans. If sausages are pre-cooked, just cook until golden on each side. *Timing tip: if you want to serve this dish with pasta, begin to boil a large pot of water at this step and cook the pasta about halfway through step 4.
2. Remove the sausage from pan and set aside on a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb fat.
3. Place olive oil and garlic in a medium pot and heat to medium. Once garlic begins to cook, give it a stir and cook 1 minute.
4. Add beans and cook for 1 minute. Add sauce and water, stir, then top with sausage. Bring to a simmer then cover and continue to simmer another 20 minutes. Check occasionally to ensure it is not boiling. Remove the cover toward the end if the dish is very watery. Add salt if needed.
5. Serve with a side of gluten-free pasta or bread and a dollup of pesto or chopped parsley. Top with fresh grated Italian cheese.
6. Close your eyes and say “è buonissimo!” (it’s very good).