Offal Good™

Outside magazine winter comfort food

click on the sausage to see the video.

This January issue of Outside magazine has a feature on winter comfort food, and they also put together a video with me cooking a recipe. I have included the recipe here after the break for those who cant find it online.

Boccalone sausage and beans

Serves 4

Note; This recipe calls for preparing dried beans. You can substitute steps 1 and 2 in the recipe by using 4 15-ounce cans of beans, rinsed and drained.

Beans
1 lb dried cannellini beans
3 qts pork stock
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 whole carrot peeled

1 whole fennel bulb split

4 each canned plum tomatoes, chopped
1 whole peeled onion
Salt

Beans with sausage
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 pounds Boccalone sausage links

4-5 fresh sage leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
Salt (about 2 teaspoons) and freshly ground black pepper

1. Sort through the beans, removing any stones. Rinse the beans under cold running water. Place beans in a large pot and cover by at least a couple of inches with cold water. Let soak for at least 4 hours.

2. Drain the beans. Add 3 quarts of pork stock to the beans in the pot. Add the whole vegetables, and canned tomatoes. Cover, bring to a simmer on medium heat, and simmer beans for one hour. Lower the heat so that the beans are barely simmering. Cook for an additional 1 to 2 hours, or until beans are just tender. Note that the fresher the beans the shorter the cooking time, the older the beans the longer. Remove from heat and let cool in cooking liquid. Remove the whole vegetables.

3. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, links and crushed garlic cloves. Do crowd the pan, or the sausage won’t brown well, once the sausage is brown add the sage leaves let sizzle then add the reserved beans in there cooking liquid, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer a few minutes longer, stirring gently, until sausage is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Be careful not to break up the beans.