Italian Pork Sausage and Bean Casserole

Copied directly from Pushing Rubber Downhill, Adam Piggot's excellent blog.  Copied because he doesn't use tags so it can be very difficult to find old posts.  Now I have it at my fingertips.  Sorry Adam.

Picture to follow as the one I took didn't look particularly appetizing.  I commented on my pictures a few years ago but nothing has changed so if you are a competent photographer, follow the link as there is still an opening

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500g cannellini beans, (2 tins).

Extra virgin olive oil

4 large pork sausages

6 rashes of top quality bacon cut nice and thick, sliced into 6cm lengths.

4 small onions quartered top to bottom

8 whole garlic cloves, peeled.

3 long and thin carrots, peeled and cut into 3cm sections, (slightly bigger than you normally would cut them).

3 bay leaves.

Some fresh sprigs of oregano.

1 red chili, deseeded.

500ml fresh chicken stock that you made yourself and which was sitting in your freezer ready for a momentous occasion such as this.

2 tablespoons of tomato paste.

You need a good sized pot for this one, large and low. Splash some olive oil around and fry the sausages for about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Remove and reserve.
Take the pot off the heat and layer the bacon over the base of the pot. Add the onions, garlic and carrots and season well with cracked black pepper. Put the sausages on top and then add the bay leaves, oregano and chili. Cover with the beans.
Mix the stock and tomato paste together and then pour over the other ingredients. The contents won’t be covered with the liquid at this stage. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for 4 hours over a low heat. Give the pot a gentle stir every 45 minutes or so. If the liquid level remains below the beans after about 1 hour, top it up with some hot water.