Sausage and White Bean Gratin

I'm slowly building my cookbook library (and by "slowly," I mean that I own three books total...). For Christmas this year, Boyfriend's mama got me Food & Wine's "Best of the Best." This is the first recipe I've made from it and it. So far, so good!!!

I'm not a huge fan of beans, but I'm pretty sure this recipe changed my mind!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup panko or dried bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb sweet italian sausages, casings removed (I used spicy turkey italian sausage)
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
• 1 scant tbsp fresh time leaves
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1-1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• Two 15.5 ounce cans white beans, such as cannelloni or Great Northern, drained and rinsed
• pepper
• 4 large handfuls baby spinach

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Combine panko and melted butter in a small bowl and set it aside.
3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until it just begins to smoke. Add the sausage and cook until it has evenly browned. This should take about 5 minutes. 
4. Remove the sausage from the skillet, leaving as much oil in the skillet as possible. Set the sausage aside. 
5. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the onions and garlic. Saute until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant, about 8 minutes or so.
6. Add the tomato paste and thyme and stir until well incorporated.
7. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Simmer, scraping up brown bits for about 2 minutes.
8. Add broth and simmer. 
9. Add beans and season with salt and pepper.
10. Simmer until reduced by about half. There should still be some liquid in the mixture.
11. Add spinach and stir until wilted.
12. Spoon mixture into a baking dish ad top with panko/butter mixture.
13. Bake for 15 minutes. 
14. Remove from over and let rest for ten minutes or so before serving.