Red Beans And Rice With Smoked Sausage- New Orleans Style - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb dried red beans, rinsed and sorted
1 1/2 lbs good-quality smoked sausage, cut into chunks
1/2 lb smoked ham hocks or 1/2 lb ham shanks
1 large onion, diced
1 green pepper, seeded, deveined and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (to taste)
salt
3 -4 cups freshly cooked rice
hot sauce

Preparation

Place beans in Dutch oven and cover generously with water; let soak 30 minutes.
Add all remaining ingredients to beans except salt, rice, and hot sauce.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until beans are tender, adding more water if necessary, about 2 1/2 hours.
Add salt to taste.
Discard ham bones after cutting any meat from them into bite-sized pieces; return meat to pot.
Remove about 1/2 cup of beans from mixture and mash to a paste.
Return mashed beans to pot and stir through.
Simmer 15 more minutes.
Serve hot over rice: pass hot sauce, if desired.