Italian Pork Sausage with Beans

Ingredients – 4 Servings:

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 carrots, finely chopped
  • 3 sticks celery, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tins cannellini beans
  • 1 tin borlotti beans
  • 4 or 5 sage leaves
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes or 4 tablespoons of passatta.
  • App 1 litre of stock – vegetable seems to work best but it doesn’t matter
  • 6 to 8 Italian pork sausages (if possible containing no rusk) or other good quality all meat pork sausages
  • olive oil
  • pepper

Method:

Put enough olive oil into a large saucepan to lightly coat the bottom and start on a medium heat, add the onion, celery, carrot & garlic, sweat for a couple of minutes. Turn up the heat slightly and add the sausages, cook for a few minutes. Add the sage leaves, after a minute add the beans, tomatoes, some fresh ground black pepper and enough stock to just cover the contents of the saucepan and reduce to a simmer.

Leave to simmer for app 30 mins, the beans should still have a bit of bit to them. If it starts to dry out add a little more stock.

Remove the sausages and cut them into 4 or 5 pieces, return them to the pan.

Serve with warm fresh bread.

You can use leeks instead of the onion if you prefer.