Creamy White Bean Sausage and Escarole Soup

Escarole is a great way to get your greens.  It's been used in soup in France for ages, and is a great accompaniment cooked with fresh peas and spring onions - a favorite dish of my Mother's.  But with the heyday of baby spinach and all the other great baby greens you can get at the market these days, it seems we might have forgotten this great leafy green.  I cook it up here with a big pot of Great Northern beans, from the dried bean.  This makes a nice creamy soup, cooked up very quickly in a pressure cooker.

I used a flavorful Italian sausage prepared by Zingo's, a very nice small local market I especially like.  But you could use whatever your favorite sausage, kielbasa or ham.
1 lb dried Great Norther Beans
1 tsp salt
1 lb Italian sausage, uncased
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
1 heat escarole, chopped, cleaned and drained

Soak beans overnight. Drain them and place in a pressure cooker. Cover with cold water to 1/2-inch above the beans. Add salt and a dash of canola oil. Cover and bring to high pressure. Time cooking at 6 minutes. Remove from heat and allow cooker to depressurize naturally.

Alternatively Cook beans in water just to cover in a Dutch oven for about an hour and a half, until beans are cooked through.

Sauté onion in a Dutch oven or large pot. Cook for about 8-10 minutes until softened and beginning to sweeten. Remove to a bowl. Add sausage and brown well, about 10 minutes.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook another 2-3 minutes.

Return onion to pot with sausage and add the cooked beans and their cooking liquid. Bring to a gentle boil and stir in the escarole.

Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the escarole has cooked down and the flavors in the soup have blended well.

I like it served with plenty of red pepper flakes.

Serve 6-8.