A cozy, one-skillet dish with white beans, spicy sausage, kale and melty mozzarella. Everything you love about pizza – savory sausage and rich Italian flavor all without the crust. (insert, ciabatta garlic bread) This dish comes from Smitten Kitchen, with a few tweaks, and is perfect for an easy fall dinner.
This recipe will bee in heavy rotation once it happens upon your happy table. You may be familiar with it from Deb Perelman’s two versions on her blog – this is a humble combination of both using the addition of sausage, and amping up the spice factor. I also used canned beans, cuz… I’m not soaking em.
Pizza Beans
One skillet dish with sausage, white beans and kale, topped with melty Mozzarella .
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb chicken or pork sausage (I like spicy but mild works too)
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 2 carrots diced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp italian seasoning, or oregano
- 1/4 cup white or red wine (optional)
- 1/2 bunch kale leaves, chopped or torn
- 28 oz crushed tomato sauce
- 28 oz canned white beans (gigante or cannellini)
- 1/2-3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/2 pound block mozzarella, coarsely grated (whole milk variety)
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
- 2 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 475 degrees.
- In a 2 1/2-to-3-quart (ideally oven-safe) deep sauté pan, braiser, or shallow Dutch oven, heat the olive oil on medium-high. Add the sausage, breaking up and cooking until no longer pink. Reserve sausage to a plate and leave the drippings in the pan. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Season well with salt and black pepper. Cook, sautéing until the vegetables are tender and slightly browned, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, fennel, and Italian seasoning and cook for 1 minute more. Add the wine, if using, to scrape up any stuck bits, then simmer until it disappears, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the kale, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until collapsed, then add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add the beans and sausage, and, if the mixture looks too dry or thick (canned tomatoes range quite a bit in juiciness), add up to 3/4 cup broth, 1/4 cup at a time. Simmer the mixture together over medium for about 10 minutes, adjusting the seasonings as needed.
- If your pan isn’t ovenproof, transfer the mixture to a 3-quart baking dish. If it is, well, carry on!
- Bake: Sprinkle the beans first with the mozzarella, then the Parmesan, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until browned on top. If you’re impatient and want a deeper color, you can run it under the broiler. Finish with parsley, if desired.
Notes
This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen with many changes, including the addition of sausage, which she used in Pizza Beans 2.0 - here is the link to her original version. https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/09/pizza-beans/I added more spices, and used canned beans, but all variations will be hearty and DELISH!
