Slowly-braised sausages with lemon, fennel and flageolet beans is one low-effort, maxmium flavour dinner. Batch cook and freeze extra portions.

Prep Time

    •    Prep and cook time: hands-on time: 20 minutes, oven time: 1 hour & 15 minutes
    •    Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

    •    2 tbsps olive oil
    •    150ml white wine
    •    500ml hot chicken stock
    •    1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
    •    70g smoked pancetta, diced
    •    8 good quality pork sausages
    •    2 x 400g tins flageolet beans, rinsed
    •    2 small fennel bulbs, each cut into 6 wedges
    •    1/2 bunch thyme, leaves stripped from the sprigs

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160°C fan/gas 4. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the pancetta and fry for 5 minutes or until beginning to turn golden and crispy. Transfer to a roasting tin. Add the oil to the same frying pan and fry the sausages over a medium heat for 5 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Transfer the sausages to the roasting tin.
2. Add the wine to the frying pan and bubble, scraping the pan to remove any stuck-on tasty bits, then pour into the roasting tin.
3. Nestle the wedges of fennel around the sausages in the tin, then add the fennel seeds, stock, beans and thyme. Cover the tin tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour, then remove the foil and cook uncovered for a further 15 minutes to further brown the sausages and reduce the liquid.
4. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the lemon juice to taste. Serve in shallow warmed bowls with hunks of crusty bread to mop up the juices.

This great family recipe is thanks to Delicious Magazine at https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sausage-fennel-and-flageolet-bean-traybake/