My friend Antoinette made me this a few years ago after seeing the recipe in the Guardian. Nigel Slater has since published it in A Cook’s Book and it’s still good. Super simple but do go to town on good sausages.
Wine Suggestion: go for an easy, central Italian Red, like Umani Ronchi’s Serrano. From the Marches on the Adriatic coast this is a Rosso Conero DOC made from Montepulciano and a touch of Sangiovese. Smooth and medium bodied, but with character, refinement and substance.
Sausages with Chickpea Mash – serves 2 to 3
- 2 x 400g tins chickpeas
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 medium onion, peeled and halved
- 6-8 top-quality sausages with fennel
- 60ml olive oil
- 6 sprigs rosemary
- 25g parsley, leaves picked
- 4-5 bushy sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
- 120ml cooking water from the chickpeas
Drain the chickpeas and put them into a large saucepen. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Add the baby leaves and onion, then partially cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Cook the sausages in a pan or under the grill with a little of the oil and the rosemary (we cooked ours on a barbecue).
Roughly chop the parsley and thyme.
Drain the chickpeas and discard the onion and bay leaves but keep 120ml of the cooking water.
Warm the rest of the olive oil in a small pan. Mash the chickpeas with a blender but careful not to over process. Pour in the warm oil and cooking water, then stir in the herbs and sesaon well with salt and pepper.
Thickly slice the cooked sausages and pile them onto the mash, drizzle with some more olive oil if you like.
(Original recipe from A Cook’s Book by Nigel Slater, 4th Estate, 2021.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 
Slater did another chickpea mash recipe in the Guardian, just last week: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/nov/13/nigel-slater-recipes-for-roast-tomatoes-and-chickpea-and-thyme-mash-and-orange-and-poppy-seed-cake
His original sausage & mash recipe used dried chickpeas, but he suggests using canned ones in both the later recipes. I think I’ll try this with my own luganega sausages, and with dried chickpeas, per the original.
Hi Clive. We prefer dried chickpeas too but the tins are handy.