Borlotti bean soup with vegetables and sausage

The farmers where we buy vegetables had returned from a short week off to visit their family and when they re-opened there were a lot of fresh new products among which several kinds of beans.

Borlotti beans look nice with their purple etchings on a white background.

Hariciot coco Borlotti in French, they can be used in stews and dried for later use in winter.

But I wanted to use the fresh ones.

I still had some poultry stock in the freezer, and had also bought bell peppers and young leeks.

Onion and garlic was at hand and a tin of chopped tomatoes.

I also had a large ring of sausage from the butcher’s which was larger than I had intended for a spaghetti meal.

I first cooked the beans in the stock for 30-45 minutes until tender. I had added bay leaf to the pan as well as the left-over bone of a rib of beef.

I cut several cloves of garlic and three shallots as well as one red bell-pepper — unseeded — and one washed leek.

I cooked these vegetables for some five minutes in olive oil and then added the content to the beans. I also added pieces of sausage and cooked for five minutes more.

I added the tin of tomatoes as well as a tea spoon of “pimenton de la vera” — a smoked mild pepper powder from Spain.

It was very good.