Pasta, Bean and Sausage Soup

Pasta Bean and Sausage Soup

6 cups chicken broth
2 T. minced garlic
1 tea. ground rosemary
1/4 tea. Penzey's Black and Red (could substitute 1/8 tea red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste)
1 15 ounce can white beans (navy, cannellini, etc) rinsed and divided
16 ounces canned diced tomatoes and juice
1 cup small dried pasta
2-3 cups fresh baby spinach
1 pound hot Italian sausage crumbled, cooked and drained
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Combine the chicken broth, garlic, rosemary and Black and Red in a stock pot. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Mash 1/2 the beans and add to the pot with the tomatoes and pasta. Cook until the pasta is just done, then add the remaining beans, spinach and sausage. Cooked 5 minutes longer.

Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.

Notes:

• Adapted from EatingWell's Pasta and Bean soup
• I used our fresh canned tomatoes, yum.
• Don't skimp on the spinach, I only had about two cups, so that is what I used but it could have used more
• For the pasta, I used what I had: elbow macaroni, which worked fine. The original recipe says to use medium pasta shells or orecchiette
• I made this New Year's Day 2009 as a way to try our new Italian sausage that Micheal had made and was inspired by the Today show talking about beans! I had all of the ingredients to make it on hand.
  
• I served this with a salad, garlic cheese bread and pinot grigio.
• It was delicious, the only change I would make is to add more spinach.