Chili with Italian sausage

Everybody has their own chili recipe. Mine is less a recipe and more of a general guideline. I take "chili" to mean "spicy bean and tomato soup," in which the beans can be any color, there may or may not be meat involved, and sometimes I even leave out the tomato.

But whatever. This week it's red beans and meat chili, and since I don't have any ground beef or ground turkey, I'm using Italian sausage instead. It tastes good and it's already spicy.

Red beans, pre-soaked
Tomato sauce
3-4 links Italian sausage, squeezed out of their casings and broken up
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Broth
Seasonings: chili powder, cayenne, cumin, salt and pepper

Saute the onion and pepper in a little olive oil until soft. Add the sausage meat and cook until browned. Add the red beans and tomato sauce and a little broth to make it more liquid. Cover and cook on low until the beans are done. About halfway through the cooking process, add the seasonings to taste. Adjust seasonings again at the end and serve hot.

You can use hot peppers in addition to the green pepper if you want; you can serve with cheese and/or sour cream; you can substitute ground beef or turkey for the sausage; the possibilities are endless here.