We jokingly call these meaty, greeny, cheesy, beany, spicy baked chickpeas because, well, internet recipe naming conventions make us laugh but I really think of them as Pizza Beans 2.0. I introduced Pizza Beans 1.0 in my second cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Every Day, where I dreamed of a mash-up of Greek gigante beans in tomato sauce and an American baked ziti, with beans instead of noodles. I called them “pizza” beans to try to convince my then-kindergartener to try them with clever marketing. We still adore the recipe and all of the truly unexpected places it’s landed.
But to be honest, these are even more popular with the family these days. Heartier with chickpeas, Italian sausage, dark greens, extra red pepper flakes for heat, and a pecorino-mozzarella broiled cheesy top, the whole dish seems louder, and even more filling. You can see that our default is still to scoop them onto garlic bread (also helps bring reluctant 4th graders to the table) but they’re also fantastic, with or without the melted cheese on top, over polenta or even pasta. It makes a big pan of beans and the leftovers are great — perfect for meal prepping.
Podcast! The newest episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, is all about brownies, a beloved topic here at the Smitten Kitchen. You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts and catch up on any episodes you’ve missed right here, such as Nachos, Meatballs, and Onion Soup. New episodes drop every other Monday. I hope you enjoy listening as much as we’re enjoying the conversation.
Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser: It’s been nine months since I announced that I was partnering with Staub to get them to bring back one of my favorite pans, a squat 4-quart Dutch oven (known as a braiser) shown here. I first bought my braiser in 2014 and have since cooked so many things in, it barely leaves my stove. It’s sold out a few times but is finally back in stock and I hope you get a chance to snag one — or nudge a friend or family member about the perfect gift for you. You can order yours here. I hope you love it as much as I love mine.
Ziti Chickpeas with Sausage and Kale
- Glug of olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped small
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 12 ounces sweet or spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or less to taste
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 6-8-ounce bundle kale, stemmed, or 4 to 5 ounces kale leaves, cut into thin ribbons
- 3/4 pound mozzarella, coarsely grated (see Note)
- 2/3 cup finely grated pecorino cheese
- Garlic bread, for serving, if you wish
Simmer the chickpeas in the sauce for 10 minutes, or if you have more time, simmering them for 20 to 25 minutes softens them in a lovely way. If the mixture looks too thick, add 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup at a time, until you get a thick but saucy consistency. Add kale and let it cook until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. If you’re preparing the dish for later, or skipping the cheese on top, this is a great place to pause the recipe. You could even freeze it at this point.
To finish: Heat your oven’s broiler. If your pan isn’t ovenproof, transfer chickpea mixture to a baking dish. Scatter the top with both cheeses and broil until the cheese is melted and browned in spots. Eat right away.
Do ahead: See notes within the recipe about where to pause. You can reheat the chickpeas in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes; I usually keep the lid on.
Previously
6 months ago: Napa Cabbage Wedge with Miso Dressing
1 year ago: Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova Stack
2 years ago: Pasta with Longer-Cooked Broccoli
3 years ago: Lemon Sorbet and Sweetheart Sables
4 year ago: Baked Feta with Tomatoes and Chickpeas
5 year ago: New Classic Wedding Cake + How-To
6 years ago: Bodega-Style Egg-and-Cheese Sandwich
7 year ago: Stromboli and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
8 years ago: Guacamole and Broccoli Pizza
9 years ago: Banana Puddings with Vanilla Bean Wafers and Taco Torte
10 years ago: Charred Cauliflower Quesadillas and Chocolate Oat Crumble
11 years ago: Garlicky Party Bread with Cheese and Herbs and Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
12 years ago: Egg Salad with Pickled Celery and Coarse Dijon and Salted Caramel Brownies
13 years ago: Cheddar, Beer, and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread
14 years ago: Roast Chicken with Dijon Sauce and Mushroom and Farro Soup and Meatball Subs with Caramelized Onions
15 years ago: Mixed Citrus Salad with Feta and Mint and Edna Mae’s Sour Cream Pancakes and New York Deli Rye Bread
16 years ago: Flaky Blood Orange Tart and Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad
17 years ago: Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree and Matzo Ball Soup and Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
18 years ago: Miniature Soft Pretzels and Sour Cream Bran Muffins
Sounds like a great recipe! Just wondering if there is a good alternate bean to use other than the chickpeas. I don’t do well with that bean. Thanks.
Seconding this! My son is weird: he likes hummus, but not chickpeas, but does like other whole beans.
Or pasta.
https://smittenkitchen.com/2013/09/baked-pasta-with-broccoli-rabe-and-sausage/
https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/10/my-old-school-baked-ziti/
You can use any other bean or legume you like. You could even use 3 to 3.5 cups of cooked lentils here.
Hi Deb!
How many more chick peas would you add to make this vegetarian?
Thanks!
I used extra firm tofu that was previously frozen (better texture for this IMHO) instead of the sausage and just added a little dried fennel to the pot to give it the Italian sausage flavor.
I made a loose take on this for dinner — used a tube of Jennie-O turkey Italian sausage, 1 can each chickpeas and cooked lentils, a jar of our favorite marinara sauce, a can of petite-diced tomatoes, a bay leaf, Calabrian chilies, and some Italian seasoning. I used less of the cheeses called for and topped it with dollops of ricotta. It was good!
I also added half a cubed block of extra-firm tofu to make it heartier. My kale was plain ol’ bagged chopped.
I made this with cannellini beans and it was fantastic!
Pizza beans is such a riffable idea. I’ve been doing my own rendition ever since you inspired me with the 1.0 version. I just wanted something with a flavor profile more reminiscent of actual pizza and now it’s in my regular rotation.
The beauty of some recipes is how they lend themselves to experimentation. Don’t sweat the details — you literally can’t make this incorrectly!
So true! I call them “unbreakable recipes.” It’s one of my favorite ways to describe so many of the recipes here. I appreciate getting a good dinner on the table even if I was missing parsley or only had 3/4# of meat.
Oooooh — I like “unbreakable” to describe recipes like this. I think I’ll be borrowing that!
What changes made it more pizza-like?
Are there any other Brits on here who find it hard to find the right kind of sausage for this kind of recipe? What kind do you use?
I live in Belgium and Italian sausage is also sometimes hard to find. Italian sausages have fennel, garlic and hot pepper – so I often use a regular beef or pork sausage, but I add a pinch of lightly ground fennel seeds to get the ‘Italian sausage’ flavour and then increase the garlic and pepper flakes in the recipe.
Yes, thanks, that’s what I’ve ended up doing in the past. Wish we could get Italian sausage round here, it’s much nicer for cooking with!
I live in Belgium too! There are some nice Italian sausages at the larger Delhaize shops, which would be perfect in this dish…
no longer in the UK to try it myself — but maybe chipolatas? got a similar herb-y onion-y vibe
actually looks like m&s has italian sausage (Collection British Outdoor Bred 6 Italian Style Pork Sausages) and therefore ocado too
Oh, good to know, thank you!
Recipes often take italian sausage out of the casing anyway, so mix the sausage seasonings into some minced pork and fry it up.
Hi Florence – I’m in the UK and made this last week. It was delicious and all the family enjoyed it. I live near an M&S so used Italian style sausages from there, but in the end result I found it didn’t make much difference to the overall flavour and any British sausage you particularly like would probably be great. I didn’t take them out of the casings like one comment suggested as it seemed like a faff, just snipped them into bite size pieces.
I also don’t know how big cans of beans or tomatoes are in the US, but I ended up using two UK cans of beans (butter beans and canellini for variety) and two cans of tomatoes, and the final result seemed exactly what I was hoping for.
Next time I think I’d put chunks of roast chicken in too, stretch it out and make it even more interesting.
We made the 1.0 recipe back in December [subbing the gigantes with cannelini, and the kale with spinach, and adding veggie sausage] as our last meal before succumbing to norovirus… if I used the 2.0 name I don’t think I could get my husband on board with this one. 😬😂
We had the same thing happen with Deb’s baked ziti recipe back in 2015. It took years before I could serve *any* tomatoey pasta dish to my family. Years. Can you imagine? We had to rely on pesto and alfredo based pasta dishes until the memory finally faded just in the last year or two. I rejoiced when I was finally able to serve tomato sauce with onion and butter. We still haven’t been able to eat lasagna yet. It is so, so sad when an ill-timed norovirus (has it ever been timed well?) ruins a beloved recipe.
I almost lol’ed when I read your comment. Because I have had an aversion to pesto/basil for decades due to a norovirus (or food poisoning). The idea of pesto pasta being the one that is safe for you…shudder! :) Nowadays I can have small amounts of basil and/or pesto – on a crostini for example. But I still can’t envision a bowl of pasta or a pesto pizza.
This happened to me once with pizza. Imagine ten years with no pizza! Luckily the incident has now faded to distant memory.
Ooof, same with the savory bread pudding from SK – it’s been seven years and I still can’t think about any savory bread puddings or look at the pictures for that recipe…
Looks so good! Deb, I think there may be an issue with your website– it’s showing everything in brackets that should be coded, e.g.
“[recipe title=”Ziti Chickpeas with Sausage and Kale” servings=”6″ time=”45 minutes” source=”Smitten Kitchen” sourceurl=””]
[recipe-notes]Note: If your mozzarella seems wet or comes in water, drain it on paper towels for a while before grating it so the final dish doesn’t become too watery. Gluten-free: This dish is (of course) only gluten-free if you exclude the garlic bread, or make garlic bread with gf bread. [/recipe-notes]
[recipe-ingredients title=false]
Same here, all posts; tried on 3 different browsers.
Oof — it looks like some code is broken on the site; it wasn’t there yesterday. I’ve filed a ticket. I’m sure they’ll have it fixed in a couple hours. Sorry for the trouble!
Looks great! We love the original in our house. We’re trying to eat more vegetarian- would it work if we just left out the sausage? Or would you add more chickpeas to get the right filling-to-sauce ratio? Thanks!
You could just add in a vegetarian sausage. There are some great options out there.
I am thinking of trying it with the Impossible sausage or even just the regular Impossible. It’s a great stand-in for hamburger, which is of course not sausage but would still be tasty.
You could add more chickpeas or you could just make the original Pizza Beans, which are vegetarian.
Just finished a bowl of this and it was verrrrrrry delicious. I prefer the chickpea version to the original! I’m trying to figure out what I’d serve it with instead of garlic bread next time, because it’s a rare occurrence that I have a fresh baguette available for such things. Maybe egg noodles? Open to suggestions! Thanks for another banger, Deb <3
This is great over polenta or pasta. [My favorite polenta recipe is the hand-off oven pecorino polenta (with or without greens) in my last cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers.]
We ate all the garlic bread we had – the kids were still eating so they toasted slices of whole-wheat bread and that worked great too!
Could you use frozen spinach instead of kale? If so should it be thawed first? I live in a rural area and some ingredients are difficult to find! Thanks
I just made this with frozen spinach. I thawed it first and squeezed out the water before adding it in. Absolutely delicious!
Thanks Silvia!
Made this tonight and we all loved it, including my 5 year old who gave me thumbs up all dinner long.
Also so affordable! We have so many leftovers. Thanks for another great recipe!
Fantastic pantry meal for a rainy winter night. I used the full pound of Italian sausage and frozen chopped kale. Makes about 8 generous servings so we are set for the weekend. Will make again – soon!
This was really flavorful and delicious! All I had were fire roasted crushed tomatoes, tasted great. I added chopped mushrooms – I couldn’t taste them, but am happy they upped the veggie content. Recommend!
This was absolutely PERFECT. I didn’t have Italian sausages and so use ground pork, fennel and pepperoncino thanks to another commenter and it worked out even better than I had hoped. I have some leftover cheddar I threw in. This is one of Keepers 2.0
It’s a completely solid recipe. I played around with the scaling a bit to get it to fit in a standard cast iron skillet – 1.5 cans of chickpeas, about a half pound of sausage, and I just eyeballed the tomatoes. I suspect the ratios are quite flexible in general. It looks nice, smells good, tastes great, and is inexpensive, healthful and easy to make – what more could you ask for?
Made this last night to rave reviews! Went a vegetarian route and subbed the sausage for a can of cannellini beans. Really yummy cozy!
Re: the mozzarella – is fresh noticeably better than low moisture here? It’s much easier to grate since it’s firm.
Low moisture is always better for melting, in my opinion. I prefer fresh or the ones that come in water for eating fresh or in salads.
Thanks!
I made this last night, mostly as written, except subbed chard for kale and added some smoked hot paprika (my go-to secret spice for almost everything). Oh, and added a zucchini, some green olives that needed to be used up, and some sun dried tomatoes. Ok, I guess I didn’t make it “as written”, but I am generally incapable of adhering to recipes. For cheese, I used regular grocery store grated mozzarella. It became a fairly hard lid pretty quickly, and then I realized that something closer to fresh mozzarella was called for. We loved it, and it’s especially welcome since we don’t eat pasta any more. Will make versions of this again, especially with a softer cheese option.
I loved this. My husband and I could have eaten the whole pan between us (we resisted). It was simple and fairly quick to pull together. The chickpeas in this were so tasty.
This looks great! Could I skip the sausage and make this vegetarian?
Absolutely. Also check out the Pizza Beans 1.0, which are vegetarian.
Made this, with some adjustments: cut up chicken tenders instead of sausage, fire roasted chop tomatoes instead of crushed, 1/2 cup of marinara sauce and frozen spinach instead of kale. I added lots of herb blends and some ground fennel. It is delicious! I’m enjoying it over Trader Joe’s gluten free tagliatelle. I’m also dairy free so I’m skipping the cheese.
Delicious, especially served over garlic bread, and very filling! I used pre-shredded mozzarella just because I had a ton on hand, but otherwise made the recipe as written. It made a LOT, so I think next time I would potentially halve it for my family of 3, but I am sure the leftovers will be great!
This was absolutely delicious, as written. My only note is that it is a very generous amount of cheese on top should you use the full 3/4 pound mozzarella. A half pound would probably be plenty. Will become a weeknight staple since it was also quick to pull together (especially with onions I had chopped and frozen on Sunday, and pre-crushed frozen garlic).
Thanks for another lovely recipe! I did not have any chickpeas in the pantry, so I used two cans of cannellini beans instead and it was fantastic. I chose to add the kale at the same time I added the tomatoes and beans, to allow the kale to cook a little longer and get a little softer. We LOVED this and I’m already looking forward to leftovers at lunch.
Made this Tuesday for the family and then had leftovers for lunch the rest of this week. Because my sausage came in a 1 pound pack I just used the whole thing, and used chicken Italian sausage. My mozzarella was an 8oz ball which was a fine amount of cheese. I made it in my 6qt Dutch Oven which worked great. This will definitely be going in to the weeknight dinner rotation.
Felt like the amount of cheese was too much as I was sprinkling it on. Realized it was the perfect amount of cheese as I was spooning the finished product onto garlic bread.
This was astonishingly tasty, not to mention easy. The whole family loved it. I just used what I had on hand: spinach instead of kale, white beans instead of garbanzo, and a freshly baked sourdough loaf instead of garlic bread. We devoured it. Thank you! This will be a regular meal for us, particularly on busy nights.
Didn’t have garbanzos so subbed in dry white beans that I precooked in an old fashioned pressure cooker. Also, my husband doesn’t like kale, so substituted spinach. Absolutely delicious and comes together in a minute. Like others mentioned, used the whole pound of Italian sausage. No one complained.
I have made this 3 times in the past 2 weeks. So. It’s a pretty big hit around here!
Absolutely delicious and comes together in a minute.
If I want to freeze this, do I leave the cheeses off and wait to add them when I am ready to reheat and broil? If so, how would this work if I want to deliver the frozen dish to a friend?
I was also wondering how this freezes.
This was absolutely delicious! I loved the spice level and it reheated well for 2 days.
This was soooo good and we’re on the second night (one more to go and I’m still excited). We had them on their own with Deb’s red cabbage, feta, and date salad on the side- maybe a weird combo but it worked. It’s overall healthy and mostly pantry ingredients. I’ll definitely make this again, maybe with an extra half-bunch of greens if I have them.
Wow! I.left the sausage casings on bht otherwise made this as written. So delicious!
Tasty and easy to put together. I added sautéed mushrooms, and used a can of fire roasted tomatoes accidentally—I will repeat that accident next time :)
I used spinach bc I had it handy. Skipped pecorino bc I didn’t have any.
I thought it was even better the next day.
I made this for dinner last night- vegetarian version using Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo- it was delicious! Served over polenta which gave it delicious Spanish vibes. Maybe too much cheese on top- got a little gloopy, or I might mix some in and top with the rest next time. But a definite keeper- can think of many ways to alter based on what veggies I have on hand or what beans are available. Thanks for another delicious and easy weeknight option!
great
Made this last night, with a little bit of riffing:
– Like some other commenters, we don’t have American-style sausage meat where I live, so I found a DIY sausage seasoning recipe I liked (mainly wanted one that didn’t require “Italian seasoning”, since we don’t have that either), made some and mixed it into a half kilo of ground pork. Used the whole amount in the recipe, because why not.
– Did not measure the amount of greens at all, just used what I had (which was some sad kale and a small bunch of rainbow chard; the chard stems got chopped and mixed in with the onion and garlic).
– Also had a little bit of Japanese pumpkin left over from a previous recipe, so chopped that small and mixed it in as well (after adding the meat, but before adding the tomatoes and chickpeas).
– Used some other cheeses along with the mozzarela (because we had some frozen 4-cheese mixture).
Still, not that different from the recipe, despite all that riffing. We had it on its own, without even bothering to make any carbs alongside, and it was an excellent dinner.
Hello, this looks delish! Can’t wait to make it.
I’m writing, because I wonder if your collab with staub is still in play and if they will be coming back with the “basil” colored braisers that you mention in the recipe? It is stunning!
Staub x Smitten Kitchen – Cast Iron Braisers
11-inch, Braiser With Lid, Basil
Thank you for your help and all your fabulous recipes over the last many years!
Hi Chere — We did a limited run over the holidays of the green/basil color that sold out. (The black matte, the usual color, also sold out but is back in stock now.) I polled on Instagram about whether we’d like another limited color run for spring/Mother’s Day and blue was the winner this time. They should be in stock in a month or so.
Really enjoyed this dish! Easy to make and good if you’re trying not to eat too much pasta! Great for leftovers as well.
This is hearty, satisfying, and so comforting. I ate it three nights in a row!
This was great, with one note: the addition of pecorino made the dish extremely salty. When making again, I would cut down on the salt in the sauce–or, more likely, use parmesan instead of pecorino.
With a tomato allergy, I would normally look longingly at a recipe like this one and sadly move on. But this dish just looked too good to pass up, so I tried a half-recipe using a 16 oz. jar of roasted red peppers + some chicken stock + a touch of red wine vinegar instead of the crushed tomatoes. It was good! Thank you.
I made this vegetarian by substituting veggie meatballs (cut up) and I also used premade marinara sauce for convenience. The family LOVED it and it’s going in the rotation along with our old favorite pizza beans!
The Ziti Chickpeas with Sausage and Kale was delicious. We also loved having it for leftovers.
My wife said, “Another winner from Deb!”
Made it as written (leaning in on the crushed red pepper!) with the garlic bread recipe and our home smells amazing, the dish tastes great , and frankly we are just happy. Will make again and will definitely add to the recipes suitable for hosting dinners. When cooking for the two of us, I will freeze half next time as a favor to future me. Thanks Deb!
Made this tonight and pulled out all the stops with your garlic bread too. What a treat. Even my picky kindergartener enjoyed the sauce and chickpeas. The kale was what really tied it together for me (which is shocking considering the delightfully gooey charred cheese on top!).
This is very good. I think the simmer for 25 minutes protocol should be a requirement. Not only does it soften the chickpeas, but it has to allow for the flavors to meld together a little longer. This one is going into the rotation.
Deb – any tips for those of us fighting the good fight with picky eating? I made this with my four year old – she tried all of the ingredients individually while we were cooking (even kale!). When it was assembled, she wouldn’t touch it. I know this isn’t your true department but I know you’ve been there. The rest of the family (including our 18 month old) enjoyed pizza beans 2.0 :)
When I have had a particularly trying dinner with my adorable picky eaters, one of my favorite things to do is read the comments under Deb’s Buttered Noodles for Frances post. It has a good mix of humor, keep-on-keeping-on reminders, and practical tips. But from what you just described above, I think you’re totally coming out ahead even if your 4YO wouldn’t touch the dish after it was assembled – a kiddo who is willing to try everything as it’s being made is getting the chance to expand their food repertoire with very little pressure, in a really great way, that is helpful for you as the parent and helpful to your child to help her figure out what she enjoys eating.
Obviously I’m not Deb. But sometimes, the victory isn’t necessarily getting our picky eaters to eat everything we give them – it’s giving them a chance to try it along with prioritizing family dinner and togetherness. That’s a win. You and she are doing great. (Also, I hope your 18mo had a great bath afterwards. My 22mo also demolished her pizza beans 2.0 and was coated in tomato sauce by the end of dinner.)
Laura: What a lovely response. You restored my faith in humanity for the day!
Jess: From a mom of four with lots of picky eating phases over the years, I co-sign everything Laura said. You’re doing great!
I made a veganized version (I know, I’m sorry) by subbing in Impossible’s Italian sausage. My husband was extremely skeptical and I have to admit I was nervous too because I didn’t know if it would take to being removed from the casing and crumbled/browned like real sausage.
It worked fine and tasted so good we made it the last two Sundays in a row. (The fact that I separated his portion and added the broiled cheese didn’t hurt.)
I’m curious if the pan in your photos is much larger than it looks. I’ve got this on the stove right now and my trusty cast iron skillet is just barely containing everything. Your pan looks like it should be a similar size, but it only looks half-full to me.
I am using my 4-quart braiser. It’s 11″ across and 4″ tall, deeper than a regular skillet.
This made such an easy and delicious dinner tonight. Next time I will cut back to 3oz. of kale and am thinking about adding a glug of red wine at some point but not sure when would be the best time.
Used some of the leftovers as taco filling for lunch and it was great! Added the cheese, lettuce, and a little avocado as topping.
Delicious! I did a few tweaks b/c husband does not like spicy and is mezzo-mezzo on beans. 1–I used half hot and half sweet sausage w/no additional red pepper flakes. 2–I also cooked ~6 oz of Rummo GF ziti and mixed it in before baking. 3–Because of the increased mass, the sauce was not sufficient and I had to add a cup of Rao Marinara. Next time I will increase tomatoes in original recipe to accommodate my variation. The “pasta e fagioli” combo made for a great texture in the finished dish!
We’ve made this twice now – easy, delicious, filling and healthy. Like others, I used half sweet and half spicy chicken sausage. I also added diced zucchini the second time I made it (added after browning sausage, cooked for a few minutes before adding tomatoes and beans).
This was so great. We didn’t feel like we needed anything to go with it except maybe a green salad. Made as described except subbed parm for pecorino due to availability. Will definitely be making this again!
So delicious. A hit with the whole family. Easily gluten free over polenta. No other subs. Thanks, Deb!