sausages
There are sausages, and then there are sausages. You can tell just by looking at them that some are better than others. Generally, I avoid anything pink. If it’s pale pink, with no discernable texture, I tend to run a mile. Who knows what’s in those things anyway? Mechanically Reclaimed Meat, that’s what.
When I buy sausages I buy them from a butcher who makes his or her own. Perhaps I’m kidding myself but I like to think those sausages are made with a little more care, and a lot less rubbish. Where possible, I buy them at the Farmers’ Market, from the guy who sells the preservative-free, gluten-free variety. The rest of his produce looks pretty healthy (nice steaks, good looking lamb chops) so I feel safe in assuming the sausages are made with good quality ingredients.
However, no matter who makes them or how they’re made, the thing I like least about sausages is cooking them. On the BBQ they tend to splutter and burst, and if I cook them in the kitchen – either on the stove in a frying pan or in my Not A George Foreman Fat Free Grilling Machine – they fill the house with nasty smells that don’t clear for days. Fortunately, I discovered that you can cook them in the oven. What a revelation.
The first time I used this recipe I followed it to the letter. Everything cooked beautifully, but I wasn’t happy about the vegetables being coated in all the fat that leaked out of the sausages during cooking – it wasn’t healthy, and I didn’t like the flavour it gave the veggies. So now I cook them separately, laid out on a roasting rack above a foil-covered baking tray, while the veggies cook in a separate dish. I tend not to prick the sausages before I cook them this way, but I buy low-fat sausages so there is less chance of them exploding.
This recipe came from my folder of delicious. magazines. I think this is a Jamie Oliver recipe.
SAUSAGE BAKE WITH ROCKET PESTO (serves 4-6)
600g small potatoes (such as Nicola or chat), quartered
2 garlic cloves, crushed
60ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs chopped rosemary
12 small sausages (ie chipolattas)
350g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes
Rocket Pesto
120g rocket
3 garlic cloves
1 cup (100g) grated parmesan cheese
125ml extra virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 190C. Place potatoes in a large baking dish with garlic, olive oil and rosemary. Season, then toss together. Bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, to make pesto, process rocket and garlic in a food processor until roughly chopped. Add parmesan, oil and salt and pepper, then process until smooth. Place in a serving bowl.
Remove dish from oven. Prick the sausages with a small skewer, then add to dish, tossing in oil. Return to oven, cook for 20 minutes, then add tomatoes, season with salt and black pepper and return to oven for 5 minutes or until tomatoes start to wilt. Serve with pesto, a green salad and crusty bread.
How funny. I’m just about to start cooking sausages and potatoes for dinner but thought I’d just read your blog before I did so! Maybe the universe sent me here to try this recipe, as I also hate the smell in the house after frying sausages in the kitchen.
yum yum yummmmm this sounds ace
My favourite way to eat sausages is not to…or at least to squeeze them out of their casing, and fry them as part of PW’s breakfast burritos!