Sausage cassoulet recipe
You could easily double the quantities here for a winter feast – great for Bonfire Night or Hallowe’en. It’s extremely hearty, so a peppery green salad is all you’ll need on the side. If you don’t want to soak the beans yourself, or can’t start the night before, replace them with 2 tins of drained beans on the day.
Ingredients
- 275 g dried cannellini or haricot beans
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 good-quality chunky pork sausages
- 160 g smoked pancetta, cut into 1cm strips
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and flattened
- 227 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 0.5 tsp paprika
- 0.2 ground coriander
- 1 heaped tablespoon soft dark brown sugar
- 600 ml boiling water
- 60 g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 1 cup peppery green salad leaves, to serve
Details
- Cuisine: French
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 15 mins
- Cooking Time: 190 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Put the dried beans in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside, and leave to soak overnight.
- The next day, when you are ready to cook, discard any discoloured beans or ones that float to the top, drain and set aside. Preheat the oven to 140°C/275°F/gas mark 1.
- Heat the olive oil in a flameproof casserole and fry the sausages and pancetta until golden and well coloured; set aside.
- Add the onions to the casserole and cook for 5–10 minutes until softened and golden. Add the garlic a few minutes before the end.
- Return the sausages and pancetta to the casserole and add the remaining ingredients, apart from the breadcrumbs. Bring just to the boil, cover and bake in the oven for 2 hours. Check occasionally to make sure it's not drying out and add more water if necessary.
- After 2 hours, remove the lid, sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and bake for a further hour until the beans are tender and the top is golden and crunchy. Serve with a peppery green salad.
Recipe taken from Cooking for Real Life by Joanna Weinberg, published by Bloomsbury, £25.
You might also like