Tuscan bean and spicy sausage soup

October 31, 2010

I made soup for the week and fish for tonight. So, you get a two-fer.

Tuscan Bean and spicy sausage soup, Food for Friends, pg 24

2 T olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz pancetta or prosciutto, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 can cannelloni beans, drained (about 2 cups)
3 spicy Italian sausages
1 quart chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot. When hot, add the onions and sauté about 3 minutes, add the garlic and sauté. Add the chopped carrot, celery, pancetta or prosciutto and cook for about 10 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the beans, sausages, stock, bay leaf and pepper (do not add the salt until after it has finished cooking). Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Skim off any excess fat, remove the sausages and cut on a diagonal, return to the soup. Stir in the parsley. Taste the soup and see if it needs any additional salt.

How I did it: I had a package of prosciutto in the freezer. It’s easier to dice when it’s frozen. I used the whole package (5.5 oz). I used packaged chicken broth that I hadn’t checked the sodium content on—960 mg per serving!! Are you kidding me? Between the broth and the prosciutto, I new it would be salty so I didn’t add any extra salt at all. I used Trader Joe’s Sicilian Chicken sausage, which is spicy and lower fat than non-chicken sausage. My carrots were kind-of small so I used 2. I didn’t have Italian parsley, so I used regular. It seemed to work out fine.

It’s good soup. I’m going to add it to the list of favorites.