Mangia Con Elena

  Sausage, Kale and White Bean Soup This soup is a family favourite and I make it quite often throughout the winter. It is a healthy and hearty soup to help warm your insides and make you feel nice and toasty! It is typically made with cannellini beans, kale and sausage but I also like to add chick peas for an additional crunch texture and increased health benefits.  Paired with Italian spices, tomatoes, garlic, celery and onions this is sure to become a favourite in your house as well!  As always with Italian recipes the suggested spice measurements are just estimates. You can omit if you don't like a particular spice. I always recommend starting with the suggested amount and then adjusting as you go along. This dish can have a bit of a kick with the chili flakes but how much you use depends on how spicy you want it and how potent your chili is! As always I am sure you will love this!  Cominciamo!                       Ingredients 4 Italian garlic sausages 4 celery stalks chopped 

  Pasta e Fagioli With Borlotti Beans Pasta e Fagioli could very well be the national dish of Italy. It was born in the countryside and very much a true "cucina povera" dish. This flavourful soup was made out of necessity using simple, inexpensive ingredients that they harvested.  There is no official recipe for pasta e fagioli, but is present in every region of Italy with slight differences in the ingredients. We grew up on my mother's version of pasta e fagioli which she learned to make as a young girl. This classic romano style uses pancetta to flavour the broth and give it a salty, earthy flavour. She would add the ends of home made prosciutto so as not to throw them out or bits of home made pancetta. Nothing went to waste in our house. If meat was not available, we would eat it without and the version here is meatless.  Of course, the choice is up to you to add pancetta or not.  If you are going to add pancetta simply cut it into cubes and fry before adding the soffr