Sausage stew

With the return of Fall weather last week, I was in the mood to make a giant pot of stew. Something tomatoey, warm, and full of goodness (a.k.a. veggies). I didn't have a lot of patience to stand around barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen (har har har), so I pulled out the slow cooker and dumped a variety of hearty ingredients in it for two hours on High heat.

Ingredients

1lb sweet Italian sausage
4 to 5 large carrots, sliced into big chunks
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
2- 30z cans of tomato (I used one crushed tomato and one diced tomato) 
1 bunch kale, coarsely chopped
1 can white cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup warm chicken broth

:: Crumble Italian sausage and brown in saucepan on stove. Remove sausage and add to a slow cooker filled with the canned tomatoes. Then, in the saucepan using the leftover meat drippings, sautee the carrots and fennel until softened, about 20 minutes. Add to slow cooker on High heat for about 1.5 hours. Stir occasionally.

:: In the last 30 minutes of cooking time, add the kale and the chicken broth, which will help compress the kale down into the pot. In the last 15 minutes of cooking time, add the beans.

:: If cooking in your slow cooker on High heat, 2 hours should do the trick to marry all the flavors together into a lovely Fall soup!

:: Serve with rustic slices of baguette, toasted with olive oil, grated parmesan, and cracked black pepper.