Sausage casserole

Nothing beats a decent sausage casserole. Ugh it’s so hearty and comforting!

AND it goes with anything! Chips, mash, new potatoes, crusty bread, rice or just on it’s own... I could go on but I don’t like these first bits to bla on.

This is a mixture of recipes I’ve tried over the years that I’ve added to, changed and tweaked the baked bean bit was definitely from my mums one she used to do. You can use other beans if you want, butter beans are good with this but Luke doesn’t like them and I don’t like a grumpy husband!

So.. enjoy please!! This will feed 4 at least, more depending on what you like with it (mash mash and more mash)

Ingredients

• 10-12 pork chipolatas

• 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon chopped into small strips

• 2 medium red onions thinly sliced

• 1 small leek chopped into 1/2cm rings

• 2 garlic cloves crushed

• 1 tablespoon of paprika

• 2 tablespoons of tomato purée

• 350ml of chicken stock

• 1 tin of good quality chopped tomatoes

• 2 fresh tomatoes chopped

• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano

• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

• 4 bay leaves

• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried

• 1 heaped teaspoon of brown muscavado sugar

• 100ml red wine

• Salt

• Pepper

• Oil

• Tin of baked beans!

Start with a nice big casserole dish and add a glug of oil. Turn up to a medium heat. Put the sausages in and fry gently until slightly browned.

Take out the sausages and put on a plate or dish for later.

In the dish the sausages were cooked in, add your small pieces of bacon. Fry them off till they start getting a bit crispy.

Take them out and add to the sausages.

In the pan that the bacon and sausages were cooked, add your onions and leeks. Move them around until they start to soften, just a few minutes, then add the garlic and mix together. You should have enough oil in there but add a touch if you need more.

Once the onions, leek and garlic are soft and starting to colour a bit, add the paprika and mix in for a few seconds just until combined.

Add the chopped tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, all the herbs, Worcestershire sauce, stock, a good pinch of salt and pepper and mix everything together well. Add the wine now. Mix again and bring it to simmer.

Add the sausages and bacon back to the pan and mix them in. Loosely cover and leave to simmer for about half an hour. If it starts to get too dry, add a little water. If looks to watery, leave it to simmer for longer.

Add your beans, check your seasoning, mix it up again and leave it to simmer uncovered for about 15mins until the sauce is rich and thick