Not Quite Stew: Italian Stew-erole AND My Very 1st Food Blogging Event

I have been meaning to make this recipe for awhile now, and I finally got around to it last week. Luckily I was just in time, because one of my favorite food blogs, Closet Cooking, is hosting a pasta event Presto Pasta Night. I just recently learned about food blogging events (from another event featuring Closet Cooking actually, but more on that another day), and I am really exciting about participating in some. Especially now that I am starting to feel that things here are coming together and my postings on this blog are starting to come out quite nice.

I found the precursor to this recipe on A Dash of Sass. The recipe was full of things I love and if I had made it in a timely manner I might have stuck to the recipe as posted. But I was busy, and the longer it took me to make it the more I altered it in my head.

Originally, this was a stew. I thought mine would still be a stew, but there was a little too much in it. So it turned out to be an incredibly thick stew. Really, it's more like a stovetop casserole.

It's a stew-erole!

Italian Stew-erole

1/2 cup white or yellow onion (about 1/2 a med/small onion); chopped

2 cloves garlic, 3 if they are small; minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup uncooked ditallini (or other miniature pasta)

1/2 cup red bell pepper; diced

1 cup zucchini; diced in big chunks

15oz can cannellini beans

14.5 oz can crushed or stewed tomatoes

1/2 lb italian sausage*, bulk or removed from casings

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp italian seasoning mix

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping

salt and pepper to taste

*I do not eat meat, I eat faux meat. But I find most recipes work fine either way, so I will include directions for either choice.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Make sure not to over cook. Set aside.

If using real sausage, cook in your large saucepan over medium heat (just like you you would ground beef). When cooked through, set aside

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.

Cook onion and garlic until onion begins to soften, about 2 min.

Add zucchini and red bell pepper, cook about 5 more min.

Add cooked sausage to pan, or crumble veggie italian sausage into pan and cook through.

Add entire can of tomatoes, including all of the liquid. (I used crushed tomatoes, but I think stewed would have worked out better because there are more big chunks in stewed tomatoes.)

Add the basil, oregano, italian seasoning mix, a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Drain and rinse canellini beans. Mix in.

At this point I also added ½ a cup of cheese directly to the dish and stirred it in because I wanted the Parmesan flavor mixed throughout. I'm not really sure this was a good idea though, because I didn't like having all the cheese strings throughout it since there was not enough liquid for the cheese to thin out.

After the cheese was melted in the best I could get it I folded in the cooked pasta. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. (I just realized red chili flakes would also be a great addition, I'm gonna add some of those next time.)

Once everything is heated serve with grated Parmesan for topping.

That was quick, right? And yes, it is as good as it looks.