I was recently watching an episode of one of Gordon Ramsay’s cooking shows and he made a delicious looking sausage casserole with gratin potatoes. His was made with ingredients similar to my Bangers and Mash. I realised I hadn’t made mine in ages. Of course, I did decide to make it on one of the unusually hot and sunny days we have had recently, the kind of day when all you want to eat is a great salad.

From traffic I’ve seen on the blog lately, there are a lot more people cooking at home. It just shows how often we eat out or get takeaway when things are ‘normal’. I thought I was the only one with a weekly habit. I’m also picking up that people are sick of cooking. I guess I’m lucky that I love to cook. But dear God, the washing up will break me! It seems to be never ending. That’s why I like a dish like this, it is cooked in one pot and does me for at least 2 dinners. It is also one where you probably have all of the ingredients already, saving me from my second most hated job, supermarket shopping.

Technically not a casserole I suppose because I cook it on the hob, but you could cook it in a moderate oven for an hour or so.

 

 

 

Useful tips & links:

• I have to be honest, I liked to use those fancy gourmet sausages in this casserole. However, we love a certain supermarket brand of sausages here and I’ve started using them all the time, I’ll let you guess which ones they are. Feel free to use any good quality sausages that you like.
• Chorizo is delicious in this and adds a wonderful flavour. If you don’t have any you can use bacon instead and add extra smoked paprika at the end.
• Use any beans you like for this but I wouldn’t use butterbeans as I think they are just too bog for this.
• I take as long as possible to cook the soffrito of onion, carrot and celery as it really makes a difference to the end flavour. If I have the time I let it cook for an hour on its own. You can also make a batch of this in advance as shown in that article.
• Use any vegetables you have to hand but make sure to cut them into small dice to allow them to cook through quickly.
• This freezes well so if you want to make a large batch you can portion it up to have for a quick meal.
• For another sausage and bean casserole Emma from Treacle has a great recipe for Simple Sausage and Bean Casserole with instructions to cook it in a slow cooker.
• For a quick tasty meal, have a look at these Easy Sausage Meatballs with pasta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sausage and Bean Casserole

Serves 4-6

 

Ingredients:

• A tablespoon of oil
• 450g of good quality sausages
• 80g of chopped cooking chorizo
• 1 onion, diced
• A large carrot, peeled and diced
• A stick of celery, diced
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• A large splash of white wine
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 500ml of hot chicken or vegetable stock
• 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained
• A pinch of sugar (optional)
• A pinch of smoked paprika (optional)
• Sherry or red wine vinegar
• Fresh sprigs of thyme

Method:

• Heat the oil in a wide pan or casserole dish over a medium heat. Fry the sausages all over until browned, then remove from the pan and set aside.
• Fry the chorizo until it is crispy and the oil is released. Remove the chorizo and put with the cooked sausages, leaving about a tablespoon of the chorizo oil in the pan.
• Add the onion, carrot and celery to the chorizo oil, season with salt and pepper and cook over a slow heat for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until they are completely soft.
• Once the veg is soft, add a large splash of wine and turn up the heat to deglaze the pan. Reduce the wine until the alcohol is completely cooked off.
• Reduce the heat again and add the garlic and tomato puree, cook for another couple of minutes, stirring the puree through the veg.
• Pour in the tinned tomatoes, hot stock and add a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are acidic. Season with a little more salt and pepper and the fresh thyme.
• Heat the sauce until it is about to boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
• After this time add in the cooked sausages, chorizo and drained beans to the sauce and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add in a little smoked paprika if needed and the vinegar. Remove the sprigs of thyme and taste for seasoning.
• Serve with mashed potato or some crusty white bread.