Red Beans, Pasta, Sausage & Tomatoes
Submitted by sbackers
Hearty baked casserole of red beans, rigatoni, Italian sausage, plum tomatoes, Swiss chard, and white wine with oregano and garlic. A rustic Italian-inspired one-pot meal.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
160 minREADY
190 minThis is a hearty, rustic casserole that brings together dried red beans, tubular pasta, Italian sausage, fresh tomatoes, and Swiss chard in a Dutch oven. It’s the kind of meal that feeds a table of hungry people and tastes even better the next day.
The beans cook from dry for about two hours, just until barely soft. You want them to hold their shape through the oven bake that comes later. The pasta gets the same treatment: cooked until barely al dente, then combined with the drained beans. Both will absorb more liquid during the final 20 minutes in the oven.
Fresh Roma tomatoes get blanched, peeled, seeded, and quartered. That quick blanch loosens the skins in under a minute. Canned whole tomatoes work if fresh aren’t in season. The Swiss chard is added in two stages: stems go in early with the casserole since they need more time, and the chopped leaves stir in for just the last 5 minutes so they wilt but keep their color.
Kitchen Tips
- Pour off the fat after browning the sausages. Three minutes in the oil renders enough fat to grease the pot, but leaving it in makes the finished dish oily.
- Add up to a cup of water before the final 5-minute chard addition if the casserole looks dry. The beans and pasta absorb a lot of liquid.
- Use rigatoni or another ridged, tubular pasta. The ridges catch the tomato-bean sauce and the tubes hold pieces of sausage.
- Serve with grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan at the table.
Variations
- Swap Italian sausage for spicy chorizo and add a pinch of smoked paprika for a Spanish-inflected version.
- Use kale or escarole in place of Swiss chard for a different green with more bitterness.
- Make it vegetarian by omitting the sausage, adding an extra cup of beans, and using vegetable broth in place of the white wine.
Ingredients
Directions
PLACE BEANS IN A POT with enough water to barely cover, cover the pot and cook over low heat until beans are barely soft, about 2 hours.
Add water to keep the beans just covered as necessary.
When beans are done, remove from heat, drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, cut the stems out of fresh tomatoes and plunge them into boiling water for barely 1 minute, or until skins crack.
Remove from water, peel the tomatoes, cut them in half crosswise and squeeze out the seeds.
If using canned whole tomatoes, cut them in half and squeeze out seeds.
Cut each tomato half in quarters and set aside.
Cook pasta until barely soft according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Drain and mix with the beans.
Lay the chard leaves on a work surface and cut out the center stem.
Roughly chop the leaves and thinly slice the stems.
Set aside.
PREHEAT OVEN TO 350℉ (180℃).
Combine oil and sausages in a Dutch oven, place over medium heat and cook 3 minutes.
Pour off the fat, add the garlic and cook, stirring, another minute.
Add the tomatoes, beans and pasta, wine, oregano, chard stems, salt and pepper.
Cover and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
When it’s time to get dinner on the table, add chopped chard to the casserole.
If the casserole appears dry, add up to 1 cup water.
Replace in the oven for 5 minutes.
Serve piping hot from the oven and offer grated cheese.
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