Boy, that is a handful of words, isn’t it? I know Fagioli means beans in Italian. A quick search on the net reveals that Fagioli All’uccelletta means beans in tomato sauce. Ah, the power of words. Such a simple translation, but it sounds so exotic in a foreign tongue.
Occasionally, I will try to say some of the Italian words that I know with what I thought is an Italian accent. After hearing what I said, Hubby usually says “not even close.” Well, that just gives me more incentive to practice my “Italian” accent. But usually, that just drives my Hubby crazy. I can sympathize with him. After all, I am an American, who speaks English with a tad of Dutch and Indonesian accents to boot. Top it off with what I perceive as an Italian accent, and I guess all hell breaks loose. 🙂
I saw this recipe when I was watching Debi Mazar and her husband, Gabriele Corcos cooking in their home on the Cooking Channel. They were about to go to Italy and they wanted to use up the ripe cherry tomatoes from their garden before they left for their trip. When I saw Gabriele cooking, I thought, “Wow, that looks delicious, but yet so simple.” So I decided that I wanted to give his recipe a try.
I got all the ingredients when I went to the grocery store. Except, right before I started to cook, I discovered that instead of grabbing Turkey Sausages from the grocery, I grabbed Italian Sausage instead. Hence the tweak of the title up there. I have cooked this recipe twice. First with Italian Sausage, and second, with Italian Turkey Sausage. I was happy with both results. The Italian Sausage one was definitely the heartier and tastier. Who can beat pork flavored meat? The Turkey Sausage one produced savory dish but was healthier. So, if you decide to try this recipe, get the sausages you like, and you will be happy with this dish.
So, we had Italian Sausage, cherry tomatoes, cannellini beans, garlic, some banana peppers from my vegetable garden, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper. You can actually use whatever tomatoes you have. I think it will be fine too using roma tomatoes, although, cherry tomatoes are definitely sweeter than roma tomatoes. On my second attempt, I was using canned tomatoes, and I had to add a little sugar to sweeten the tomato sauce.
First, I sliced all of the cherry tomatoes into halves or quarters. You can see how to slice tomatoes faster here. You can basically just use 2 plastic container lids to contain the tomatoes and slice away. 🙂
Minced the garlic and rinsed off the fresh bay leaves.
Same here, I washed the banana peppers and chopped the parsley.
Drained and rinsed the beans. I found out I like the beans very much, so I doubled up the beans in my second attempt. And I liked it very much. 🙂
Then I browned the sausages in a pan drizzled with olive oil.
After the sausages were browned, I set them aside.
Then using the same pan, I added a little bit of olive oil and put the garlic in it.
Then the tomatoes and banana peppers. Salted and peppered it. I cooked it for about ten minutes…
After ten minutes, the tomatoes started to soften.
Then I added the sausages back into the pan…
Added the beans and bay leaves….
Stirred them up a little bit and cook for another ten minutes.
Hmmm…. yum!
Sprinkled with chopped parsley and served. So what do you think? Do you want to try to make this easy but yummy dish?
Print recipe here.
Italian Sausages with Beans
Recipe adapted from Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos
Ingredients:
8 -10 Italian or Turkey Sausages
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound cherry tomatoes, halves or quartered
3 – 4 cans 15 oz. cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
5 fresh bay leaves
A pinch of dried red pepper flakes or any other fresh peppers
A handful chopped fresh, Italian parsley for garnish
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Preparation:
In a large pan, add olive oil and brown Italian Sausages. Set aside.
Add more olive oil, and saute the garlic until fragrant. Add chopped cherry tomatoes, season with salt and pepper. Cooked over medium high heat for ten minutes, or until tomatoes are soften.
Add the sausages and any juices back into the pan, add bay leaves and beans.
Stir and cook for another ten minutes.
Dish into a plate and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve.
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