Several years ago, I found a “quick” recipe for a self defeating cassoulet that fails to capture the meaty bean flavors of this classic French dish. Like any rich stew, cassoulet ingredients need to cook slowly to enhance the flavors. A classic cassoulet from the former province of Languedoc starts with duck or goose confit with a pork sausage and other meats like lamb or bacon cooked with dry white cannellini beans in a round pot with slanted sides. Elizabeth David who wrote lyrically about food in French Provincial Cooking describes the cassoulet as:

a dish which may be infinitely varied so long as it is not made into a mockery with a sausage or two heated up with tinned beans, or with all sorts of bits of left-over chicken or goodness knows what thrown into it as if it were a dustbin. 

This simple version uses smoked sausage (which can be any variation of pork, chicken or turkey) with a colorful array of canned beans (cannellini and dark and light red kidney) cooked in a large enameled cast iron pot. My inelegant recipe  with tinned beans may not meet Ms. David’s standards but makes a delicious meal with much less fuss and improved upon the “quick” version with which I started. 

I count sautéing the sausage, adding white wine and celery leaves, and more cooking time among my improvements to this recipe. Sautéing the smoked sausage (even if already cooked) leaves a char in the bottom of the pot which adds meaty complexity when deglazed with the mirepoix. Adding a cup of Chardonnay or other dry white wine to the mirepoix when the onion becomes translucent adds sweetness and depth. Celery leaves reserved from the chopped stalks in the recipe add a delicate herbal flavor. Finally, this version gives more time for the meaty and creamy bean flavors to come forward. 

Serve this hearty comfort food to up to a dozen people with a long buttered French baguette and a fresh green salad.