Tuscan Bean Stew, plus Sausages

A quick and easy Tuscan bean stew made with Italian sausages, cannellini beans, tomato, sage, and garlic. It's hearty, filling and what you need to warm yourself up on a chilly evening.

You won't believe how easy this bean stew is, the cannellini beans are already pre-cooked (the ones you buy in cans) so there's not much “stewing” involved in this stew. But don't let that fool you, it's jam packed with so much good flavour it's one of our favourite winter recipes.

How to make Tuscan Bean Stew, plus Sausages

Make sure you have good quality sausages, the ones we buy at the supermarket have fennel seeds, garlic, red wine and rosemary in them. They are SO good, if you can get ahold of good quality Italian sausages then those are the best for this.

You'll need

• Sausages
• Cannellini beans
• Sage leaves
• Garlic
• Passata/pureed tomatoes
• Pantry ingredients – olive oil, salt and pepper

Incredibly simple ingredients, right?

Step by step instructions

Start by adding 1/2 tbsp of olive oil to a large pot with two peeled whole garlic cloves and 5 sage leaves. Lightly fry the sage and garlic until the garlic starts to take on colour.

Add the beans with some of the cooking liquid (save this from the can) and add the tomato passata.

Let the beans simmer for around 10 minutes then add the sausages. You want to remove the skins from the sausages and cut them into rough chunks, we normally cut each sausage into three.

Season with a salt and pepper and continue to simmer the bean stew gently until the sausages are cooked through. Stir it every so often but be careful not to mash up the beans. Remove the garlic cloves when it's ready.

Serve the bean stew with salad and crusty bread for dipping. This is proper comfort food, we love this when we need something hearty and comforting but we don't have a lot of time or we're already hungry.

• Eggplant (aubergine) parmigiana
• comforting zucchini potato soup
• Apple olive oil cake
• Pappa al pomodoro – tomato bread soup

Ingredients

Makes 4 people

• 4 Italian sausages (,skins removed)
• 1.6 lbs (740g) cannellini beans (,canned + 6 tbsp of cooking liquid)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 sage leaves
• 7 oz (200g) passata/pureed tomatoes
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper (to season)

Method

1. Add the olive oil to a large pot on a medium/low heat. Peel the garlic cloves but keep whole and add them to the pot with the sage leaves.

2. When the garlic starts to take on some colour add the beans with 6 tbsp of their cooking liquid and the passata (pureed tomatoes).

3. Let the beans simmer for around 10 minutes. Cut each sausage into three then add them to the beans.

4. Season with a salt and pepper and continue to simmer the bean stew gently until the sausages are cooked through (around 15-20 minutes). Stir it every so often but be careful not to mash up the beans.

5. Once ready, remove the garlic cloves and serve. Serve with salad and crusty bread.

Kitchen notes

Please note the recipe was tested and developed using metric measurements all imperial measurements are approximate.

**The weight of the beans is the drained weight not including the cooking liquid.**