Nigel Slater's Recipes for Sausage and Beans, and Blood Orange Panna Cotta
It was the kind of winter night where only sausages would do, and I came home with my favorite butcher variety and a packet of Italian charcuterie - at coarse texture and seasoned with fennel seeds and dried chile. I cooked everything slowly, so that their skin was shiny and sticky like Marmite.
Failing potatoes – which I forgot to add fetch from the grocer – I mashed some white haricot green beans with a bunch of steamed spinach leaves and turned them into a mound of fluffy mash with green freckles.
I have to say that virtually any sausage and mash is welcome on the table, but the best will always be those with coarsely chopped, open-textured meat, cooked with care and a watchful eye. The mash can be anything smooth and silky - pumpkin, potato, chickpea or cannellini bean, or even a mixture of roots, such as parsnip or rutabaga - the latter only welcome when it's served with copious amounts of salted butter and coarsely ground black. pepper.
I will sometimes crush chickpeas to accompany merguez sausages (I also incorporate a little za'atar), and beans in cream with Toulouse sausages with garlic. The rosemary cannellini mash is wonderful with the fennel Italian sausages.
Last winter, a puddle of buttery parsnip mash sat particularly well with a black pudding plate and I suspect it will be again this year.
Baked sausages with spinach cannelliniIf you are mixing up your sausages, I suggest you bake some first the fleshier ones before adding the finer ones. (Those with a good girth need a lower heat if they don't have to split.) You can add cream to the spinach and white bean puree - not much, but it's fine like that. A knob of butter mixed in at the end is a good idea, but even better would be hot juices from the sausage pan. Enough for 4
peanut or vegetable oil 3 tbsp assorted sausages 1kg sprigs of rosemary 8 garlic 8 bay leaves 3
For the beans: spinach leaves 200g chicken broth 200ml cannellini beans 2 cans of 400g
Wash the leaves spinach and discard the thick stems. Put the leaves, still dripping, in a deep saucepan, covered with a tight fitting lid, over medium heat. Let them steam for a minute or two, then flip the leaves over with tongs and steam for an additional minute until they're crumbled and bright green. Remove from heat and briefly rinse spinach under cold water, squeeze firmly, then allow to cool.
Place spinach in the bowl of a food processor or blender.
p>Pour the chicken broth into a deep saucepan. Drain the cannellini beans, add them to the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the beans for about 5 minutes. Add them and their broth to the spinach and mix briefly, until obtaining a coarse purée. (Be careful not to overmix or the texture will become sticky.)
Cook the sausages: Place a large skillet over medium heat. Heat the oil in a shallow pan that you have a lid on over low to medium heat. Add the sausages, starting with the fattier ones before adding the thinner and smaller ones a few minutes later. Tuck in the rosemary sprigs, garlic cloves and bay leaves, then allow the sausages to brown slightly. Watch them closely, flip them when the underside is golden and shiny.
Pour the spinach and bean puree into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat stirring so it doesn't stick, then serve with the sausages.
Blood orange and pomegranate panna cotta
It was the kind of winter night where only sausages would do, and I came home with my favorite butcher variety and a packet of Italian charcuterie - at coarse texture and seasoned with fennel seeds and dried chile. I cooked everything slowly, so that their skin was shiny and sticky like Marmite.
Failing potatoes – which I forgot to add fetch from the grocer – I mashed some white haricot green beans with a bunch of steamed spinach leaves and turned them into a mound of fluffy mash with green freckles.
I have to say that virtually any sausage and mash is welcome on the table, but the best will always be those with coarsely chopped, open-textured meat, cooked with care and a watchful eye. The mash can be anything smooth and silky - pumpkin, potato, chickpea or cannellini bean, or even a mixture of roots, such as parsnip or rutabaga - the latter only welcome when it's served with copious amounts of salted butter and coarsely ground black. pepper.
I will sometimes crush chickpeas to accompany merguez sausages (I also incorporate a little za'atar), and beans in cream with Toulouse sausages with garlic. The rosemary cannellini mash is wonderful with the fennel Italian sausages.
Last winter, a puddle of buttery parsnip mash sat particularly well with a black pudding plate and I suspect it will be again this year.
Baked sausages with spinach cannelliniIf you are mixing up your sausages, I suggest you bake some first the fleshier ones before adding the finer ones. (Those with a good girth need a lower heat if they don't have to split.) You can add cream to the spinach and white bean puree - not much, but it's fine like that. A knob of butter mixed in at the end is a good idea, but even better would be hot juices from the sausage pan. Enough for 4
peanut or vegetable oil 3 tbsp assorted sausages 1kg sprigs of rosemary 8 garlic 8 bay leaves 3
For the beans: spinach leaves 200g chicken broth 200ml cannellini beans 2 cans of 400g
Wash the leaves spinach and discard the thick stems. Put the leaves, still dripping, in a deep saucepan, covered with a tight fitting lid, over medium heat. Let them steam for a minute or two, then flip the leaves over with tongs and steam for an additional minute until they're crumbled and bright green. Remove from heat and briefly rinse spinach under cold water, squeeze firmly, then allow to cool.
Place spinach in the bowl of a food processor or blender.
p>Pour the chicken broth into a deep saucepan. Drain the cannellini beans, add them to the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the beans for about 5 minutes. Add them and their broth to the spinach and mix briefly, until obtaining a coarse purée. (Be careful not to overmix or the texture will become sticky.)
Cook the sausages: Place a large skillet over medium heat. Heat the oil in a shallow pan that you have a lid on over low to medium heat. Add the sausages, starting with the fattier ones before adding the thinner and smaller ones a few minutes later. Tuck in the rosemary sprigs, garlic cloves and bay leaves, then allow the sausages to brown slightly. Watch them closely, flip them when the underside is golden and shiny.
Pour the spinach and bean puree into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat stirring so it doesn't stick, then serve with the sausages.
Blood orange and pomegranate panna cottaWhat's Your Reaction?
