Macedonian baked beans

My favorite bean dish. One evening recently I made a two-meal portion to eat for lunch on the coming two days. Unfortunately, even though I already had dinner, I ended up eating half of it for a midnight dinner, and the other half for breakfast the next day. And it felt good. In Macedonia it is called tavce gravce, and it is prepared in a traditional earthenware pot.

Ingredients
2 cups white beans
2 raw spicy Italian sausages
1 yellow onion
1 Hungarian or Cubanelle pepper
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp oil
0.5 tbsp paprika
salt to taste
water

Preparation
Wash the beans and soak them overnight in water. The beans will swell, so make sure you have an extra two inches of water covering the beans when you start out.

The next day, pour off the excess water from the beans and add fresh water to cover them. Have an extra inch above the beans. Peel the onion and add to the beans. If you plan to remove it later, leave it uncut, otherwise quarter it before adding it to the pot.

Clean the pepper and remove the seeds. Slice into half-inch-wide strips. Add to the pot.

Bring the contents of the pot to a boil, then simmer until the beans are done. Do not overcook.

Take a frying pan and add the oil and flour. Prepare a roux, frying the flour until light brown. Add the paprika and mix, fry for 15 more seconds.

Remove from the heat and scoop a large ladle of the water from the beans into it. Mix quickly to avoid knotting. Pour the sauce into the pot with the rest of the beans. Mix, salt to taste and pour into a baking shape.

Now take the Italian sausages and squeeze the filling out, forming small sausage-balls and topping the beans with it.

Finally, bake in a preheated 375F oven for approximately 20 minutes, until the sausage balls are cooked.

Serve with roasted peppers, tomatoes and bread.

If you wish to make the dish simpler, skip the sausage and the baking step. This makes a delicious bean soup as well! Of course, you must have the flavorful Hungarian or Macedonian paprika, not the one they use in the US only for color.