Spicy Pork Sausage and Fennel Chili

Walk into an Italian-American butcher shop and this is the chili you'd imagine simmering in the back. Built on hot Italian sausage and a good pinch of fennel seed — that sweet, licorice note that makes Italian sausage taste like Italian sausage — it swaps the usual kidney beans for creamy cannellini and the usual canned tomatoes for San Marzanos, landing somewhere between a chili and a great pot of sausage sugo. Red wine and rosemary deepen it, red pepper flakes keep it lively, and it's finished the way any self-respecting Italian cook would: torn crusty bread for dunking and a snowfall of grated Pecorino. Rustic, garlicky, and deeply satisfying.

Grilled bread rubbed with garlic and a hard shower of Pecorino are the move; a drizzle of good olive oil at the end suits it.

Sweet Italian sausage plus extra pepper flakes lets you control the heat. Cannellini are worth keeping for their creaminess. A handful of chopped kale or escarole stirred in at the end makes it a meal.