Sausage and Bean Casserole

Ingredients

• 8 good pork sausages
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 carrots, cut into chunks
• 2 celery sticks, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of cannellini beans, drained
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• a few sprigs of thyme

Method

1. Brown the sausages

   Brown the sausages all over in the oil in a wide casserole, then lift them out. They are nowhere near cooked through, but the browning is where half the flavour of the finished dish comes from.

   10 min

2. Soften the vegetables

   Cook the onion, carrot and celery in the sausage fat over a medium heat until soft and beginning to colour, then add the garlic for a minute.

   12 min

3. Build the sauce

   Stir in the paprika, then the tomatoes, stock and thyme, scraping the browned bits off the base. Those scrapings are the reason you browned the sausages in this pan and not another.

4. Return and simmer

   Put the sausages back with the beans, bring to a simmer and cook uncovered, or in a 170°C oven, until the sauce has thickened around them.

   40 min

5. Finish

   Stir in the mustard off the heat and check the seasoning. Mustard added at the end keeps its sharpness; cooked in, it just disappears into the background.