This pasta with sausage and white beans is a perfect midweek recipe. It’s an easy-to-prepare pasta recipe, and you can throw just about anything in it.
If you’re looking for an easy midweek recipe that uses up all those wrinkly veggies in the back of your crisper, look no further than this pasta with sausage and white beans. Best of all, you can even clean out a few things in your pantry too!
For this pasta recipe, you can get creative with what you throw in this pasta recipe. I used:
- Sausage, or use chicken, turkey, pork, or bacon
- Shallot and garlic for the aromatics, or use onion or leeks
- Mushrooms and zucchini for the vegetables, or use eggplant, butternut squash, small diced sweet potato, broccoli florets, carrots
- Tomatoes, omit if you don’t have them, or use a can of whole peeled!
- Cannellini beans, or use any white bean
- Fresh parsley, or use fresh basil or you can use dry parsley
- Angel hair pasta, or use your favorite pasta shape
How to make this pasta with sausage and white beans:
This recipe is so easy to make.
First, brown the sausage. You want to do this over fairly high heat. It’ll make a nice fond and caramelize parts of the sausage. The fond will add a big flavor bomb to the rest of the sauce. Make sure it cooks until it browns and caramelizes a bit.
From there, remove it from the pot and add the mushrooms and cook them until browned. Next, start layering in the aromatics and veggies. Start with the shallots and then add the garlic. From there, add the zucchini and tomatoes. Finish with the beans, and then add the sausage back into the pot.
To finish this recipe up, add some water or chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. After the sauce simmers, finish it off with some fresh herbs, like parsley or basil.
As the sauce simmers, cook the pasta until just barely al dente. Scoop out a little bit of pasta water and add it to the sauce. Add the pasta to the pot and toss to coat. That’s it!
Pasta with Sausage and White Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage loose
- 4 ounces mushrooms sliced
- 2 shallots peeled and diced
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 1 golden or green zucchini trimmed and diced
- 1 pint Campari tomatoes quartered
- 1 15- ounce can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper plus more to taste
- 1 cup water or chicken stock
- ½ cup loosely packed parsley minced
- 8 ounces angel hair pasta
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Cook the sausage:
- Place the sausage in a wide pot and turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring often for 12-15 minutes until cooked through and beginning to caramelized. Remove from the pot. Drain off all but 1 tablespoon fat from the pot.
Cook the vegetables:
- Add the mushrooms to the pot and cook for 8-10 minutes until browned and crisp around the edges. Season with salt.
- Add the shallot to the mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
- Add the zucchini and tomatoes and stir to combine. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the zucchini begins to soften. Add the beans and season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.
Simmer the sauce:
- Turn the heat to high. Once any liquid in the pot (from the tomatoes and zucchini) begins to bubble, pour in the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes until the liquid reduces. Taste and season to your preference. After 20 minutes, stir in the parsley and cook for 5 minutes more.
Cook the pasta:
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just barely al dente. Remove 1/2 cup of the cooking water and then drain the pasta.
- Add the pasta cooking water and angel hair pasta to the sauce and toss to combine. Cook in the sauce for 1 minute until coated. Turn off the heat.
To serve:
- Divide the cooked pasta between between shallow bowls. Serve with more fresh parsley if you like. Enjoy!
Your recipe card doesn’t mention adding the sausage back in, though the blog does.