PASTA E FAGIOLI​ WITH TURKEY SAUSAGE

As you guys know, I get my Imperfect Produce box delivered to me on Fridays and occasionally it doesn’t come until a bit late. It recently came just as I was heading to bed and I truly was too lazy to go down to the doorman to get it so I waited until the morning. Everything was totally fine but I figured I’d get a head start and just chop a bunch of the veggies up right away for storing purposes.

I knew I wanted to make a big soup but at first, I thought it was going to be more of a chili. And then I had a hankering for something more tomato based. SO I started thinking about my mom’s chunky veggie, chicken, and tomato soup that I’ve made a zillion times. From there I knew I wanted to hearty it up even more by using turkey sausage instead of chicken and by adding both white beans and quinoa pasta. I realized quickly that what I wanted to make was starting to sound a lot like pasta e fagioli so I looked up a recipe and sure enough, the only real difference was that I was going to need to add some red pepper flakes – DONE!

What I Used (4 servings):

• 4 Italian turkey sausages
• 1 white/yellow onion diced
• 1 stock of celery, diced (keep the leaves!)
• 4-6 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 bunch of collard greens, chopped (you can use any leafy green like spinach or kale instead)
• 1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 28oz can of whole tomatoes, hand crushed (you could also buy already crushed or diced but I like doing it myself for the texture)
• 1.5 cups of chicken stock (I use better than boullion, you may want to have 2 cups on hand in case you want more broth)
• 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp crushed dried oregano
• 1 tsp crushed dried basil
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Approximately 1/2 bag of trader joe’s brown rice & quinoa fusilli

How To:

1. In a deep pot or dutch oven saute the onion, carrot, and celery with half of the salt and red pepper flakes over medium heat until translucent.
2. Add the greens & parsley and mix lightly until wilted.
3. Add the white beans, canned tomatoes, all of the additional spices, and chicken stock. Give it a big stir, cover and let simmer for a couple of hours occasionally stirring.
4. While the soup is cooking, in the oven roast the turkey sausages in a baking dish with a drizzle of oil at 425 for about 40 minutes. Then cut down the middle and into half moons or smaller bite-sized pieces.
5. When you’re ready to serve, add the turkey sausage into the soup and cook the pasta in boiling water per the instructions. Rinse and strain the pasta and add into the soup.
6. Optional to add a garnish like parmesan but it seriously has so much flavor it doesn’t even need it!

For another great collard greens soup head here and for a yummy lemon pasta head here!