SAUSAGES WITH LENTILS

The weather was crazy yesterday - despite the threat of the storm, London was absolutely beautiful during the day. In fact it was so lovely I was out walking by the river before 10am which is a miracle in itself as I am not an early bird. All that fresh air certainly awoke my appetite and I was keen to walk home via the pub for a scotch egg and sausage roll however it was closed!! Gutted!!

I made up for it by cooking this recipe at home. I always think about trying a dish like this in Italian restaurants but then am drawn to the cheesy pastas and pizzas so when I saw this recipe in Olive magazine, I immediately cut it out. 

It was a great and very easy to cook - it took about 45 minutes in total and the recipe was very simple to follow.

Ingredients for 3 people:

Puy or small brown lentils 300g
Onion, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
Carrot, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
200g pancetta / lardons
1 tsp chopped rosemary
3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
olive oil
6 sausages (if possible Italian)

Depending on what type of lentils you bought, if they are from a tin, you may need to rinse them in cold water and drain. Being lazy, I bought ready prepared ones.

In a large casserole dish, gently fry the onion, celery and carrot until they begin to soften. I hate it when recipes don't give you a time frame as I have no idea how soft you want them to be!! We fried them for about 4 minutes.

Add the garlic and pancetta or lardons (I used lardons but either would work) and continue to fry until the vegetables are golden and the pancetta/lardons are cooked through. Then stir in the lentils, the rosemary and tomatoes and add a glass of water and simmer for about 30 minutes.

The recipe suggests frying the sausages but we barbecued them although you could also grill or cook them in the oven. This took about 10 minutes although it depends on the sausages. We added them to the pan for a couple of minutes.

Finally serve the sausages on top of the lentils and tuck in!!

We both certainly did - wow - absolutely delicious, it tastes rustic and was so satisfying. We couldn't stop eating, I literally had to roll from my chair to the sofa after I had finished. What a fantastic recipe. This is the first time I have ever cooked with lentils and it was a great success. I think I am going to search my recipe books for more lentil recipes now. I will definitely be cooking this again very soon as I am keen to see if Arabella would like it - I am not sure of her thoughts on lentils but I can't see why she wouldn't adore it as 99% of children I know love sausages and the recipe has plenty of vegetables as well. 

Being the piglets that we are Pascal and I practically scraped the saucepan clean so there wasn't a morsel left (despite having cooked for 3 people) and then spent the rest of the day watching Breaking Bad - I am really enjoying it - being such a telly addict, I don't know how I missed it the first time round?! I literally couldn't move from the sofa all day - not sure how the body is going to react to the gym and bikram on Monday but I am going to need some drastic help after such a good weekend of eating!!