Earlier this week I had a total recipe fail and I was a bit discouraged since I haven’t had much time in the kitchen lately, but then I took a step back and realized I needed to get back to my roots. Simple recipes, with simple ingredients, and lots of flavor. So I decided to take advantage of a sale on Italian sausage (one of my favorite “short cut” ingredients) and whip up this incredibly filling Italian Sausage and White Bean Skillet.
Automatic Seasoning with Sausage
One of the reasons I love working with Italian sausage is because it’s packed with all the herbs and spices that you would normally add one by one to a recipe. So when I start a dish with Italian sausage, I rarely have to season it with anything later. The sausage does all the work for me. Yay!
To retain all the flavor from the sausage, I did not drain the fat from the skillet, but rather used it as a sort of sauce or dressing to coat the white beans and spinach with flavor. I added some freshly cracked pepper and that’s it. I used hot Italian sausage because that’s what was on sale, but you can use mild or sweet varieties as well.
How to Serve Italian Sausage and White Bean Skillet
This Italian sausage and White Bean Skillet is so extremely versatile that I wanted to give you a few variations. I decided to go with a “one skillet” and low-er carb version because those recipes seem to be quite popular lately, but you can lower the cost and stretch this meal out by replacing some of the sausage, beans, or spinach with 8oz. of cooked pasta, preferably orecchiette, which is a flat, disk-like shape. If you can’t find spinach for a low price like I did (thank you, Aldi!!), you can cut the amount of spinach in half and still have a great dish, or use frozen chopped spinach.
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Italian Sausage and White Bean Skillet
Servings 4 about 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 lb. Italian sausage (hot, mild, or sweet) ($3.49)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.13)
- 2 15oz. cans cannellini beans* ($1.10)
- 8 oz. spinach ($1.49)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
Instructions
- Remove the casing from the sausage and add the sausage to a large deep skillet, or wide bottomed soup pot, along with the olive oil. Sauté the sausage over medium heat, breaking it into pieces as you go, until the sausage is cooked through, brown, and crispy on the edges (about 10 minutes).
- While the sausage is cooking, rinse and drain the cannellini beans. Once the sausage is brown and crispy, add the beans and some freshly cracked pepper to the skillet. Gently stir the beans into the sausage to coat them in the fat, and allow them to heat through.
- As the beans are heating through, roughly chop the spinach. Add the spinach to the skillet or pot in batches, gently stirring it into the sausage and beans until it wilts down. Once the spinach is mostly wilted, turn the heat off. Taste the mixture and add salt if needed (this will depend on the salt content of your sausage and beans). Serve hot.
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Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Sausage and White Bean Skillet – Step by Step Photos
This recipe started with this awesome sale on Italian sausage. This whole package, which is actually slightly larger than 1 lb. was only $3.49. This recipe is very flexible and forgiving, so you can use a little less, a little more, or exactly 1 lb. Italian sausage, and it can be hot, mild, or sweet.
Remove the casing from the sausage and then add the sausage to a large deep skillet, or a wide-bottomed pot with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté the sausage over medium heat, breaking it into pieces as it cooks, until the sausage pieces are brown and crispy. Don’t stop when it’s simply cooked through, keep going until the moisture evaporates and the edges start to sizzle in the oil and turn brown.
While the sausage is cooking, rinse and drain two 15oz. cans of cannellini beans. Cannellini beans are better than navy beans or great northern beans because they are larger, hold up better, and have a great creamy flavor. The smaller beans that tend to break down are better suited for soups and things where you’ll want them to break down and help thicken the mixture.
Once the sausage is crispy, add the drained beans and gently stir to combine. Add some freshly cracked pepper and allow the beans to heat through with the sausage.
I’m lucky enough to be able to buy this 8oz. bag of fresh spinach for $1.49, but if you can’t get a deal like this you can either reduce the spinach by half, or use frozen spinach in its place. The only downside to using the frozen spinach is that the texture and appearance will not be as good. Instead of being tender, the frozen spinach will be a bit more stringy. Actually frozen broccoli florets (chopped into small pieces) would also be pretty awesome with this.
Roughly chop the spinach and add it to the skillet in batches, stirring it just until it wilts down, and then adding the next batch.
Once all the spinach has been added and it is mostly wilted (you want it to still have a little body, not totally cooked down), give everything a taste and add salt or pepper if needed. My skillet was so extremely flavorful, even without adding anything else. It’s amazing! The amount of seasoning needed at the end will likely depend on the salt and spice content of your sausage and beans, so it may vary from brand to brand.
Dinner doesn’t get easier than this. :)
I accidentally got kale at the store instead of spinach, would kale work?
Yes, but you’ll want to sauté the kale for longer for it to tenderize.
This is the first recipe I’ve tried from this website and I am super impressed. Sausage, white beans, spinach, salt, pepper, that’s it??? And yet the ingredients felt so right for each other. The beans became nice and creamy in the sausage fat…. didn’t even know they could do that. It’s hard to find recipes my husband can eat because he has so many allergies, and despite the fact that he’s terrible at cooking this was easy enough for us to make together. It took all of 10 minutes to prepare. A beautifully simple dish. This is not the kind of meal I think of when I think ”cheap food” yet as promised it was very affordable!
It’s obvious so much work went into this site, as well as the app, which I’ve recently downloaded (this recipe is not on the app, though, so I haven’t gotten to use it yet.) I really appreciate it and look forward to making more recipes.
Holy heeeck. I added a bit of minced garlic after the sausage was browned, and added about a cup of broth and as the beans broke down, it made a creamy sauce so I served it over zucchini noodles. So happy. I also made your homemade garlic bread!
Your website is really helping me through tough financial times. <3
I just made this with 50/50 ground pork and beef and it was just delicious. I had to get a bit creative with my spice rack, but in the end it was just so easy and delicous, who cares.
Only thing I added in the end was a tablespoon of creme fraiche and half a cup of beef broth just add some creaminess to it and I can only recommend doing that
Made this tonight. Absolutely delicious. Only added some lemon wedges as I love citus upon serving. Thanks for an easy meal. Will make again.
I make something similar but I cook some onion and garlic then cook the sausage. I also add a can of petite diced tomatoes and let some of the liquid cook down before adding the spinach. I think this will be on next week’s menu. Yum!
I made this last night and it was sooooo good! It was a tiny bit dry, so I may add a little bit of water next time, but that did not detract from the taste and texture. Next time, I think I will try to get Turkey Italian Sausage just to be a little bit more healthy. I live alone, so I have enough for tonight and tomorrow. (I know it’s supposed to serve 4, but I couldn’t help myself. How can anything that tastes so good be budget-wise, and healthy?? 8-)
I know I’m out of place with this question, but I’d wanted to make this recipe with a Field Roast Veggie Italian Sausage but, when I tried making it, I noticed the beans haven’t got any fat to cook in, making them just become more or less regular ol’ white beans (and cooking them longer would’ve burned the veggie sausage as that would also burn). Any advice on how to sub a veggie sausage? I’m down with butter! Totally fine if it’s not possible.
Hmm, I’ve never used Field Roast before so it’s hard to say, but I suspect you could use any type of fat that you like… butter, coconut oil, olive oil?
SOOO…. I used turkey italian sausage from Aldi and added some sautéed mushrooms (removed the cooked turkey while cooking mushrooms). Before adding the spinach, I added some chicken stock to the sausage/beans/mushrooms mixture and let it cook down (I was a bit worried about the sausage being too dry– turkey is so lean that is lacks the magic of pork sausage). The final result was like a cassoulet!!! Totally creamy, flavorful, and delicious. I cooked it for a friend of mine and she was SO thrilled!
I made this for dinner tonight, and we loved it! It was so good, flavorful, and filling. Best of all, my 13 month old loved it too! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
(Just replying because I forgot to rate the recipe)
Turned out pretty tasty. This is a great dish that is so easy I can even make it on a weeknight when I’m feeling lazy.
You can make it even cheaper by using dried beans instead of canned, although it wouldn’t be quite as quick.
I made this with kale (personal preference) and also sautéed an onion in the sausage grease and it was fantastic. This will be a regular around here this fall. Thanks, Beth.
I’ve done this with Kale and it is amazing! I havn’t tried with the spinach but love it with kale because it holds up really well! if you brown/throw in some chopped onion and garlic it really adds to it as well!
This was so good I almost cried (because I knew my picky husband would love it and he did)! I used Johnsonville hot Italian sausage 19 oz. package, Progresso beans, and 9 oz. bag of Publix fresh spinach, plus olive oil and fresh ground black pepper. I can’t thank you enough for this one – fantastic and so easy.