White Bean Soup with Turkey Italian Sausage, Zucchini, and Basil

Directions

Soak dried beans overnight, or all day while you’re at work. Drain soaked beans, rinse, and remove any loose skins or broken pieces. Place beans in soup pot with chicken stock, chopped onion, dried basil, dried marjoram or oregano, ground fennel, and minced garlic and cook at a low simmer about one hour, or until beans are starting to get tender. While beans cook, preheat oven or toaster oven to 400F/200C and roast turkey sausage about 25-35 minutes, or until well browned and firm, or heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan and brown sausage well on all sides. Remove sausages from roasting pan or frying pan, then deglaze pan with 1/2 cup water, scraping off the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and add to soup. Cut sausage in half lengthwise, and then into slices and add to soup. Continue to simmer on low, adding a little water if the soup is starting to get too thick. Wash zucchini, trim both ends, cut in half lengthwise and then into 1/2 inch this slices. When beans are beans softened and close to being done, add chopped zucchini, black pepper, and hot pepper flakes and simmer 30-45 minutes more. When beans are fully softened and cooked, add chopped fresh basil or frozen basil and cook 5 minutes more. Serve hot. This will keep for several days in the refrigerator and also freezes well.