Sausage and White Bean Pasta

You may have caught on that there's been a wee bit of snow around these parts lately. We're currently experiencing a lovely bouncy type of sleet while waiting for the nor'easter to begin pounding our region. While many are getting a touch of the cabin fever, I am still completely pleased and looking forward to a long day of movies, books and baking. Beer bread, perhaps? I'm also very much looking forward to having my leftovers from this sausage and cannellini bean pasta for lunch. It's so delicious and warming. It reminds me a bit of black eyed peas and sausage, but you know, without the hours of work. Although, I suppose I do have hours available, what with waiting for the next 12-18 inches of snow and all.

SAUSAGE AND CANNELLINI BEAN PASTA
from Cooking Light (probably made not light - sorry)

This makes a ton. I made a full recipe of the sauce, and a half recipe of the pasta. I took half the sauce and froze it for use later. The half recipe of pasta was probably about 4 conservative servings or 3 hearty servings.

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb penne or ziti pasta
1 C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb turkey sausage (remove the skins that make them into links)
1/2 C dry white wine or vermouth
1/2 C chicken broth
1 28 oz can chopped tomatoes
2 15 oz cans cannellini beans (rinsed and drained)
1/2 t fennel seeds (I had none, so skipped them)
1/2 C shaved Romano cheese (I used parm, still super yummy)
pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Cook the pasta according to the package directions. I think I started the water when I added the onion and garlic and it worked out well.

Brown the sausage in a large skillet on medium high heat. Use a spoon to break down the sausage into nice little bits. When the sausage is cooked through, remove it to a plate covered with a paper towel and set aside. Lower the heat and add the onion and garlic and cook on medium low until softened, about 3 minutes. Then add the sausage back in. Increase the heat and add the vermouth and stir to get up all the browned bits that have stuck to the pan. Add the broth, the tomatoes, the beans and the fennel (if you're using it). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes. Add plenty of pepper, but I found it needed no salt. You can add the pasta to the sauce to incorporate it, or just spoon the sauce over the pasta (which is what we did since we wanted to save half the sauce for another meal). Top with the shaved cheese.