Great mid-week comfort food; rich and delicious and easy to make. We had all these ingredients in the fridge or freezer too so it made our dinner really cheap. This was so delicious that if we’d have made a larger amount Jono probably would have scoffed that too! Using good ingredients helps as we had two lovely Toulouse sausages in the freezer and good quality cherry tomatoes in a tin in the cupboard. These lifted the richness and depth of flavour.
Italian Stew with borlotti beans and sausage – serves 2
- 2 Italian-style sausages (we used Toulouse which worked just as well)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- pinch of chilli flakes
- 400g tin cherry tomatoes
- 300ml stock
- 400g tin borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
- 100g green beans or sugar snaps
Remove meatballs and add the onion, garlic, fennel seeds and chilli flakes to the pan. Season and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the tin of cherry tomatoes and 300ml stock. Bring to the boil and then add the meatballs and borlotti beans. Cook for 10 minutes.
Now add the green beans or sugar snaps and cook for a further 5 minutes (until the greens are just tender).
Serve in bowls.
Wine suggestion: Great with a warm, but not heavy red. A Nero d’Avola or other southern Italian would work really well, but so would a cooler climate, New World shiraz or cabernet, particularly if it has a little bit of age to mellow out the tannins. Avoid the jammy, higher alcohol reds as these would overwhelm the dish.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
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