Sausage Cassoulet

By Erin Brown
Related Categories: Cookbook Confidential

“This is hearty, but it’s also refined. It’s the kind of dish you might enjoy at a restaurant without realising how easily you could recreate it at home.” Elena Silcock, author of One

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 pork sausages or chipolatas, such as Cumberland

2 onions, finely sliced

4 sprigs each of fresh rosemary and thyme

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

2 x 400g white haricot, cannellini or butter beans, drained but not rinsed

1 stock cube (beef, vegetable or chicken)

200g spring onions, sliced

1 tablespon wholegrain mustard

1 lemon

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the sausages and fry for around 8 minutes until browned, shaking the pan so they colour evenly. Set the sausages aside on a plate.

Add the onions to the pan, along with a big pinch of salt. Fry for 10 minutes until soft and a little golden. You can add a splash of water if the onion starts to stick at all.

Add the rosemary and thyme along with the garlic, fennel seeds and chilli flakes. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes until the garlic has started to turn golden. Tip in the beans. Refill one of the emptied cans with water and pour that into the pan too. Bring to the boil and crumble in the stock cube. Stir to combine, then reduce the heat to low. Return the sausages to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, until the sauce has the consistency of a thin gravy.

Remove the rosemary and thyme stalks from the pan and discard. Stir in the spring greens along with the mustard, then squeeze in the juice of half the lemon and season well. Cook for 1 minute further, so the greens are cooked through, then spoon into 4 bowls and top with the parsley. Serve with the other half of the lemon on the table, in case anyone wants a squeeze more.