Fagioli Con Salsicce All 'Uccelletto + Spinaci Saltati

Oh yes, friends, experimental cooking night is ON!  Tonight's fare is from Trattoria Grappolo's cookbook and it's basically roasted italian sausage with cannellini beans and sauteed spinach.  Sounds so much fancier-schmancier in Italian, though!

First, the ingredients:

The main course recipe is as follows:

4 mild italian sausages

1.5 T unsalted butter

6 fresh sage leaves ( I'm using dried as a substitute...

one tsp dried - one T fresh...why is Sage so hard to

find in the grocery store?)

Pinch of crushed red pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 can cannelini beans, with liquid

Salt & pepper to taste

Poke holes in the sausages and roast for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

While roasting, melt butter in pan, then add sage, red pepper, garlic, beans, salt, and pepper; cook until creamy.

Remove sausage from oven & serve with beans.

The Sauteed Spinach:

1/8 c EVOO

2 cl garlic

pinch of crushed red pepper

1 # cleaned spinach

salt and pepper, to taste

lemon wedges (to serve with)

Add EVOO & garlic. Add pepper, spinach, salt, pepper, stirring well

until spinach is wilted. Drain and serve with lemon wedges.

So the sausage was delicious. I enjoyed the beans, but they were a bit colorless; I think I should have added more red pepper. Their pinch may not be my pinch. Spinach was good, but I'm just not sure I like the texture of spinach.  It's good within other things, but on its own, I'm not a huge fan.  I just used up the rest of it, though, so it didn't go to waste.  This was a nice treat and something different than what I'm used to cooking as we've been in a sort of pasta or chicken rut lately.