Cozy White Bean, Fennel Sausage, Leek & Rapini Soup

A wonderful hearty, nourishing and flavorful soup that's perfect throughout the colder months. The leftovers are maybe our favorite part, as the flavors continue to deepen a few days after making it - great in the fridge or freezer for quick belly-warming lunches and dinners.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons Olio Santo or House Blend EVOO
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 leeks
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced yellow onion and/or fennel bulb
1 cup diced carrots
2 large bunches rapini, woody stem ends removed, chopped, 6-8 cups (kale, collards, or any hearty leafy green would also work here)
1 dried bay leaf
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1¼ pounds pork or turkey sweet Italian sausages with fennel (GF folks: please check your packaging, or ask the butcher to make sure sausages are gluten-free)
7 cups chicken stock
1½ cups stewed tomatoes plus 2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans or 2 cups beans made from scratch
For serving: Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, grated Parmesan, red-pepper flakes, and your favorite olive oil for finishing like Organic Arbequina, Garlic, Rosemary, or even Jalapeño EVOO

Wash and trim the leeks. Slice the tender white ends into thin rounds-you
want to have about 1 cup sliced leeks.

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over
medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, onion, carrots, bay leaf, and 1 teaspoon
salt. Cover the pot and stew the veggies over medium-low heat until tender,
15 to 20 minutes.

In the meantime, in a large skillet, brown all sides of the fennel sausage--no
need to fully cook the sausages at this point, because they will continue cooking in the stew. Remove the sausages from the heat and slice into ½"-thick rounds.

Once the stewing veggies are tender, add the chicken broth and tomatoes
to the pot. Bring to a simmer and add the rapini and sausage rounds. Cook
until both veggies and sausage are cooked through, about 8 more minutes of
simmering.

Finally, add the beans to the pot. Turn off the heat and let all the ingredients mingle. Taste for seasoning and add salt and black pepper to your liking. (How much seasoning you'll need will depend on how salty your broth and sausages are.) I like red-pepper flakes in this stew, but I tend to serve them on the side so that the non-spicy members of my tribe enjoy the soup as well.

Find and discard the bay leaf before serving. Scoop the stew into large shallow bowls and scatter chopped parsley over the top and a healthy drizzle of olive oil. Pass around bowls of grated Parm and red-pepper flakes.

We also LOVE it with our Homemade Croutons floating on top!

VARIATIONS: