Sausage and white bean ragout – Elbow macaroni, ground beef, Italian sausage, white beans and a robust tomato sauce make this comfort food dinner recipe.

This sausage and white bean ragout recipe was originally published in the Greenwood Daily Journal on Saturday, November 10, 2012

I am sure you all have experienced a scenario like this. You stand in front of the refrigerator trying to decide what to make for dinner. You have a protein and maybe a few fresh ingredients, but you just can’t think of what to do with it. I know this happens to me often.

I can usually piece together a recipe based on what I have on hand, but I also get tons of ideas from magazines like Cooking Light, what I see here and there online, and tweaking tried and true family favorite recipes.

Back to Cooking Light for a minute. If you are going to get any one food magazine, let me suggest that one. I have learned quite a lot from reading it over the years. Every month I go through my new issue and flag what I am going to make from it that week. I pick things that are interesting , that my kids will eat and even sometimes something new I want to try. If it doesn’t look quite right, I will change the recipe to suit our tastes. I like being able to find it all in one place, especially when it is a lightened up recipe.

Having said this, I have a favorite free cooking app for the smartphone and tablet that I want to share with you if you are into this kind of thing. Epicurious, while not a new site, it a really handy recipe search tool that even one of my local chef friends raves about.
Easily downloaded to your device, this app can help you take the guesswork out of cooking. From appetizers to desserts, this database has thousands of combinations. You can search by specific recipe titles or even better, just enter the ingredients you want included. For example if you have pork loin and apples, you enter those keywords and it will provide you with recipes with those ingredients.
A neat feature is that you can read all of the comments and suggestions made by all of the people who have made it before, what they would add or change. Sometimes I get more information from that area than anything else.

I have this fun little phablet (phone and tablet in one) that I have been playing around with and using this app when doing recipe research has been so helpful. The app has the ability to make a shopping list that you can send to yourself, so that’s what I do. I pull my shopping list up on my phone in the grocery store and I no longer have to worry about leaving my list at home.

Try this app out if you are looking for fresh , new material. They draw from Food & Wine, Gourmet and Bon Appetite magazines but don’t think that they are all hard and fussy concoctions. Many of the search results that I find I change to suit our tastes or what I have on hand.

One particular family favorite is a Sausage and White Bean Ragout that I found there from a back issue of Gourmet from 1996. I changed the recipe to included a few ingredients that we like and took out a few we didn’t.

I have been making this easy pasta dinner recipe for over 3 years and it never fails to please. It’s hearty sauce is great with a crusty piece of bread to mop up all of the leftovers. The term ragout can refer either to a main-dish stew or to a sauce for noodles or other starchy foods. It calls for a 6 oz bag (or bunch) of spinach in the sauce at the end but I usually leave that part out. I usually take some of this in my lunch the next day so I add the spinach to each plate when serving the ragout to preserve its crispness and nutritional value. Plus, I am not a fan of cooked spinach.

I used my favorite diced tomatoes from Red Gold – diced with garlic, oregano and basil.  SO good you can eat them straight from the can!

Like all recipes, change this one to suit your tastes, like I do. That’s the great thing about cooking, every time you are stepping into the kitchen it is as if you are walking up to a blank canvas. The final result is up to you.

I hope you enjoy this comforting sausage and white bean ragout recipe!

Total Servings 6

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 3-4 spicy Italian sausages, casings removed
• 2 14 1/2-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice with garlic, oregano, and basil-I used Red Gold
• 2 14-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth or stock
• 1 15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 C chopped fresh basil, reserve 1/2 C for garnish
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 C small elbow macaroni
• 1 6-ounce bag baby spinach leaves
• 1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
• Additional grated Romano cheese for serving

Instructions

1. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion and garlic and sauté 6 minutes.
3. Add beef and sausage and sauté until brown, breaking up meats with back of a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes with juice, broth, beans, 1 cup basil, oregano, and dried crushed red pepper.
5. Simmer 15 minutes to blend flavors, stirring occasionally.
6. Add pasta and cook until tender but still firm to bite, about 15 more minutes.
7. Add spinach and cook just until wilted, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes.
8. If you would like the spinach to remain uncooked, then add a layer of it to your serving bowls, then ladle the ragout over it.
9. Mix in 1/3 cup cheese.
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Garnish with cheese and basil.

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