Recipe - Red Beans With Pasta Sausage And Tomatoes

Three fourths cup Dry red beans
12 Ripe plum tomatoes; =OR=
28 ounce Can whole peeled tomatoes
One half pound Rigatoni
=OR= other tubular pasta
2 lg Swiss Chard leaves
(red or green)
1 tablespoon Olive oil
6 Italianstyle sausages
each cut in 2or3 pieces
1 tablespoon Minced garlic
One half cup White wine
1 tablespoon Fresh oregano leaves; =OR=
1 teaspoon Dried oregano leaves
One half teaspoon Salt; or as desired
One half teaspoon Ground black pepper

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 350F. 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.

MICHAEL ROBERTS PRODIGY GUEST CHEFS COOKBOOK

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini