Sausage and White Bean Soup (and my love for pork sausages)

The man in my life doesn't eat pork, so when he goes out of town...well..I pork out. I don't think the absence of regular pig in my diet is such a tragedy, it's pushed my culinary creativity to new limits. When I am out for breakfast, though, there's always an order of crispy bacon on the side.

Often times my inspiration for food comes to me while I am napping. Yesterday, for instance, I awoke with sausage and white bean soup on my mind. I could not stop thinking about the creaminess of the beans mixed with the salty richness of pork sausage. I hit the grocery stores with intention and let the inspiration flow. I chose some beautiful Swiss chard to green up my soup, navy beans, leeks, carrots, celery and mini farfalle pasta noodles.

My favourite butcher in this city is Jackson's on West 4th avenue. It's a historical landmark in Kitsilano - it's been there since 1911. The butchers there are friendly, knowledgeable and extremely helpful. The man helping me didn't even judge me for drooling over the sausages. I had my eyes on the stacks and stacks of pork sausages behind the squeaky clean glass. I chose hot italian and chorizo for my soup and got a litre of turkey stock (three cheers for thanksgiving living on!), a half litre of chicken stock and a half litre of lamb stock.

I am a huge proponent to finding inspiration for dinner as one shops. I could practically taste the clear, rich, flavourful broth in my mouth as I walked out of the butcher shop. Maybe it was Thanksgiving weekend, leaving me totally breaded out. I probably ate my body weight in stuffing on Monday. Regardless, I wanted something light yet dramatically satisfying. This was going to be it.

I hurried home and got to chopping. I chopped 4 cloves of garlic, an onion, 2 leeks
(I cut the tough green ends off, sliced them lengthwise, cleaned out the sand, and then sliced them thinly) 4 carrots, 5 ribs of celery and 2 chili peppers. I heated up a large stock pot just past medium head, added a good healthy glug of olive oil and then added the garlic and chilies. I fried this for maybe 30 seconds before adding the leeks and the onions. I cooked these until they were soft and translucent and then added the carrots and celery. I like chopping all my vegetables for soup small and in uniform size. It makes the soup look fancy and it assures that everything cooks evenly. I chopped three chorizo and three hot italian sausages up and added them to the pot next. After a few minutes I added the three types of stock, brought the soup to a boil and reduced the heat to medium low. I also added a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, salt and pepper. I let this simmer for about half an hour, then added about 1/2 cup of the mini farfalle noodles. I always overestimate how many noodles I'll need, and then the soup ends up sucking up all that beautiful broth I work so hard for. This time I was not so foolish. 1/2 cup looks like nothing, but those little noodles plump up!! When the pasta was cooked al dente (still a bit of bite to it) (Italian for 'to the tooth'), I added the sliced chard, cooked it until it was bright green and tender. I seasoned the soup with a bit more salt and pepper before serving it.

Now, I have to admit, sometimes I really impress myself. This was most certainly one of those times. Please, make this soup, share it with your friends and family. Nothing like a warm bowl of nourishing soup on a cold, Autumn night to keep you warm. Try it, love it, learn it, share it.

Happy Cooking!