Sausage, Bean and Fennel Casserole

As the nights start to draw in its nice to get cosy and make wonderful comfort food that fills the house with amazing aromas and I find that a stew or casserole hits the brief exactly! For this sausage, bean and fennel casserole I’ve drawn inspiration from the french sausage cassoulet but elevated the sausage the Italian way with fennel. You can choose to serve it with mashed potatoes, crusty bread or just simply in a bowl on its own

Kitchen tools needed: Cole & Mason Silver Plated Hoxton Mills, Cole & Mason Herb Chopper, large caserole dish

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 1 hour 20 mins

Difficulty

Easy

Serves 4

Ingredients

· 12 pork sausages

· 150g of chopped smoked pancetta

· 2x400g cans of beans (I used cannelini and butter beans)

· 2 sticks of celery (diced)

· 2 carrots (diced)

· 1 large brown onion (diced)

· 1 fennel bulb (diced)

· 3 large cloves of garlic (minced)

· 2 tbs tomato puree

· 200ml white wine

· 1tbs of thyme leaves (chopped)

· 1tbs of rosemary leaves (chopped)

· I tbs of fennel seeds

· 2 bay leaves

· 1L of chicken stock (I used 2 stock pots in a litre of water)

· 30g of unsalted butter

· 2 tsp cornflour (optional)

· Small handful of chopped fresh parsley

· 2 tbs of olive oil

· Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat 1tbs of the oil in a large heavy bottom casserole pot and cook all of the sausages until browned all over (don’t worry about cooking them all the way through, that will happen later) remove and set aside. Then heat the other tbs of oil in the same pan and cook the pancetta until golden brown, remove and set aside. You should have enough oil in the pan for frying the veg - the bottom of the pan may have caught some of the sausage and pancetta but don’t worry or scrape it off, we will deglaze it later.

2. Add the celery, carrots, onion, and fennel to the pan and cook on med/high until they start to soften (about 5-6 mins) then add the garlic and cook for a further 2 mins. Add the fennel seeds,

thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and the tomato puree and cook out for 2 mins.

3. Its time to add the wine and deglaze the pan, make sure you get all the bits of flavour off the bottom. Cook a bit of the alcohol off for a couple of mins then return the sausages and pancetta, add the beans and cover with the chicken stock. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to min and simmer with the lid on for 40 mins.

4. Remove the lid and cook for a further 15-20 mins to reduce the sauce and intensify the flavours. Stir in the freshly chopped parsley and if the liquid is too loose, mix the cornflour in a small glass with a little cold water to create a milky cream and add this to the pot and stir over low heat until the sauce thickens. Take the pot off the heat and add the butter to the centre of the pot, stir quickly but carefully and this will add a lovely glossy richness to finish the dish. Season to your taste preference with freshly milled black pepper and sea salt from the new silver-plated Hoxton Mills. Perfection.

TIP:

Taking these extra steps with the meat at the beginning of cooking this dish will add much more depth of flavour.