Any ideas for an 'italian' chili

[clutterbuster]

I accidentally bought some hot italian sausage rather than sweet. I put
it in the freezer. Our local chili contest is coming up, I won two years ago with my sweet chili and meat sauce (and took my winnings to a breeder and picked up my Pippi). I'm thinking of doing a hearty italian chili with the hot sausage.

Any suggestion on suitable beans and other ingredients. For this chili I'd
be using red and yellow peppers, coriander, cumin, chili powder but not
cayenne or hot pepper flakes. And I always throw in canned mushrooms.

Got to win this one again, the kiddies need new fleeces and cozy's:hysterical:

[HedgeMom]

Ummm...

Hot Italian sausage
White beans like a navy or cannelloni
diced peppers
No mushrooms (canned mushrooms are an abomination)
Oven roasted tomatoes
white wine
Hungarian Paprika

I'd serve it over mini elbow macaronis.

[The Animal Farm]

Those come in a bag too! *TAF runs quickly*

Ummm...
No mushrooms (canned mushrooms are an abomination)



Seriously, ditto HM's recipe. I make a veggie version of it using the cannelloni.

[clutterbuster]

thanks, I'll check out the navy beans rather than red
kidney. Do you oven roast the peppers too?

and no 'chili' spices, just hungarian paprika?

not sure what canneloni is, bean or pasta? I'd rather avoid using
pasta's since this has got to sit in a crock pot for six hours
while people sample. Got to stand on it's own in a little
paper cup.

[HedgeMom]

Oh, I'd use chili spices.

I'd roast the peppers and keep with the continuity of flavors. If it gets too smoky tasting you can offset it with diced sundried tomatoes to add some sweetness.

I'm sorry about the confusion. The beans are cannellini, the pasta is cannelloni. I mean the beans.

And I think serving it over a pasta could add a lot to it but no pasta IN the chili.

[Incubus527]

mmm.... hedge mom's recipes always make me hungry...

[clutterbuster]

Went shopping for beans today and came home totally confused. Am I
right in assuming that Italian Chili uses white beans whether it be Cannellini, Navy, Butter (I am allergic to garbanzo's - found that out from the last time I tossed them into a greek pasta salad, can't even
pick them out).

Which white bean will hold up better in chili, and should I throw in a
can of red beans also?

and speaking about sweetening chili, I caught a bit of a chili cookoff on
the Food Network and one person adds prunes to her chili to add a
natural sweetness. Now that is interesting.

[HedgeMom]

I'm anti red beans in Mediterranean chilis. Cannellini or Navy. Butter beans won't hold up and are too rich (imo) for this dish. Although I love butter bean soup with bacon and ham. Yum...

Lots of things can go into chili--chocolate, prunes, coffee, cider, corn, whiskey, tamarind, brown sugar... if it's in the cupboard, someone has put it in chili.

[clutterbuster]

Hmmm, peanut butter. Off the track a little, but I have a friend who makes a colonial Georgian Peanut butter soup with chicken stock, onions, and creamy peanut butter. It's very nice, wonder how that would taste with italian sausage and beans.

I will get the canneloni and navy beans, do I use both or just one type?

and I put light red kidney beans into my pasta fagioli (oh I can't spell ).

[clutterbuster]

I had used the hot italian sausage, tomatoe base, red, yellow, and orange peppers, canned mushrooms,
pepperoni, grated zucchini, chopped prunes and it was still missing
something... so I went to our local butcher and got a pound of
applesausage (a seasonal item here) and added it and it pulled
it together - when I went to pick up my crockpot it was EMPTY!