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1
In a large heavy kettle, place the beans, water, and carrots. Bring the liquid to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer the beans for 2 to 3 hours
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2
In a large skillet, place the sausage and fry it on medium heat until it is well cooked. Remove the sausage and set it aside. Leave the drippings in the skillet.
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3
In the same skillet (with the drippings) add the garlic, onions, celery, zucchini, basil, sage, and parsley. Saute the vegetables on medium high heat until the onions are transparent.
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4
Add the sauteed vegetables, chopped tomatoes, salt, and pepper to the soup.
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5
Chop the sausage and add it to the soup.
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6
Simmer the soup for 1 more hour.
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7
Add the elbow macaroni and stir it in.
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8
Snaketruck's additional notes:
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9
I use only 1 1/2 tsp black pepper, but I only use fresh ground pepper, which maybe is a little stronger than already-ground
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10
I fry the sausage, remove it, fry the veggies and then chop the sausage into little bite-size pieces and give it one more fry after the veggies go from the frying pan into the soup.
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11
I'm slow chopping veggies (I just like my veggies to be perfectly bite-sized), so I start washing veggies & chopping when the carrots and beans have been on for 90 minutes. By the time I'm done frying everything, the soup carrot-bean mix has been simmering for about 2.5 hrs.
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12
Once the sausage & veggies are in the soup, I let it simmer for a half hour, then get the elbow mac' cooking. Elbow mac is in the soup about 15 minutes later, and then I just let the soup go about 15-20 minutes more.
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13
Navy beans are not great northern beans! I've made this mistake a couple of times.
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14
Serves 8 according the recipe, but I'd say more like 10-12.
