Pasta e Fagioli with Sausage

Joey and I made a great soup together today.  The new kitchen has made us both want to cook and cook together.  Here is the recipe on Rachel Ray's website.  With soup I don't usually follow a recipe or measure, but this one was so simple and I stayed pretty close to it.  

I did use sweet sausage because I wanted to add the hotness from one of my habaneros.   We grew them in our garden last summer and we freezed a bunch for the winter.  They are SO hot and we love it!  We put half the pepper in the soup and it was kickin'.  

I thought that a pound and a half of sausage was way too much, but ended up using just a little under the pound and a half and it was perfect.  However, if you had more or less meat it probably would taste just as good. 

This made a perfect amount for the two of us.  We have just enough left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow, however I think both of us are planning to have a bowl later tonight. :)  But if you have a big fam or want extra, you should double the recipe or just add more broth or water.  

I never get my recipes to look like the picture, but this soup really does end up looking like the picture.