I am at the moment going through an Italian phase, it is one of my favorite nations for food, generally I love the rustic feel behind the food using simple pure ingredients but producing wonderful flavours. This dish is a fine example of that, the flavours are deep, intense and very satisfying, using fennel which is not something I have used much before, but in Italy it is very much an everyday vegetable, I found it added an extra depth to the dish and I will now be using this a lot more, especially in casseroles and stews. This makes a perfect supper dish or lunch on a sunny afternoon served with good rustic bread and red wine.
This dish also freezes well for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
- 400g Italian Sausage or Toulouse, it needs to be a spicy sausage not chorizio
- 1 tsp of fennel seeds
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 200g green lentils or puy
- 175ml of white wine
- 500ml chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper to season.
- sprinkle fresh chopped parsley to garnish
Method
- Heat a couple of tablespoon’s of olive oil in a flame proof casserole
- Brown sausages all over, lightly crush the fennel seeds, add to pan
- Add the fennel finely sliced to the pan followed by the onion, garlic and fry for 5mins till veg starts to soften
- Add the lentils, wine,stock and bay leaves bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer cook with the lid on for 40 minutes and then for 20-30 without the lid, do keep stirring occasionally so it does not stick
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