The meals I make most often are usually the ones I forget to document for Worthy Pause. I’ve made this skillet thing many, many times, but it never even crossed my mind that it might be a good recipe to share here until the other day when my daughter Nilou was scarfing it down like she hadn’t eaten all day (note: she hadn’t eaten all day because she had refused all the other foods). This kid has been so picky about food for the last few months (even food she loved yesterday and will love tomorrow), so her relatively consistent stamp of approval for this dish is like the James Beard award of my house.

Toddlers like it (sometimes), but it’s not even close to a kiddie meal. It’s a grown-up meal for grown-ups who are too busy to cook complicated things tonight. This recipe is SO fast, flexible and easy. It only takes about 30 minutes at most.

You can use different sausage, beans or veggies—just use up whatever you have in the house. You could use canned tomatoes if that’s all you have. I prefer fresh because they sort of melt into the dish rather than turning it into a stew, but stew is good, too!

You could also make it paleo if you swap out the butter beans for something like potatoes or squash… though butter beans are so good in this… and so under-appreciated in general (except by my toddler, who is a much-feared and unhinged butter bean lobbyist).

One-Pot Italian Sausage, Spinach + Butter Beans

gluten-free (paleo and whole30 with substitutions) | serves 3-4

Ingredients

• olive oil

• 1 lb ground Italian sausage (pork, chicken or turkey)

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 pint grape tomatoes

• 1 bag fresh spinach, chopped

• 2 cans butter beans, rinsed and drained

• salt and pepper, to taste

• optional: Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Brown the sausage in a medium-hot skillet or Dutch oven. Use a little olive oil if it’s a lean meat.

2. Turn the heat down a little and clear a small section of the pan. Add a little olive oil if needed, then sauté the garlic for a minute until fragrant.

3. Mix in the tomatoes, add a little salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes on low-medium heat until they melt into the dish.

4. Stir in the spinach and the beans at the very end. When everything is hot, taste and add seasoning if needed.

5. EAT. Possibly with some Parmesan cheese on top.

Notes

• I almost always use Whole Foods brand ground chicken Italian sausage for this dish, and add some extra fennel because I like it. It’s also nice to season your own meat, and I’m a big fan of Melissa Joulwan’s sausage seasoning from Well Fed.

• I’ve also done this with leftover slow-roasted tomatoes, which is an excellent use of those tomato treasures.