Pasta Con Fagioli

This pasta e fagioli is the hearty, sausage-loaded version: sweet Italian sausage crumbled and browned, simmered with white beans, Roma tomatoes, white wine, and a full herb garden of oregano, sage, rosemary, basil, and bay leaf. Fusilli pasta gets stirred in at the end and Parmesan finishes the bowl.

The white wine goes in after the onions and garlic soften, and it simmers for a couple of minutes to cook off the alcohol. What’s left is a concentrated acidity and depth that tomatoes alone can’t provide. It’s a small step that makes the whole sauce taste more polished.

Adding the Parmesan gradually at the very end is deliberate. Dumping it all in at once causes the cheese to clump instead of melting evenly into the pasta and bean mixture.

Pro Tips

• Cook the pasta al dente since it continues to absorb liquid from the sauce after mixing. Overcooked pasta turns mushy fast.
• Use sweet Italian sausage as called for. Hot sausage overwhelms the herbs and white wine.
• Add the parsley last. It’s a fresh, raw garnish here, not a cooked herb. Cooking parsley kills its brightness.
• Remove the bay leaf before serving. It’s easy to lose in a bowl this busy.

Variations

• Use cannellini beans if Italian white beans aren’t available.
• Swap fusilli for ditalini or small shells for a more traditional pasta e fagioli shape.
• Skip the sausage and add extra beans for a vegetarian version.