Sausages, Lentils and Lemon
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
A traditional Italian hearty stew made with sausage meat with flavours from a classic soffrito. It's the soffrito as much as the sausage that imparts the substantial flavour base needed to make this dish special. Tend to it carefully, adding the liquid in small amounts.
Ingredients
- celery 2 sticks
- carrot 1
- fennel ½ bulb
- olive oil
- salt
- unwaxed lemon 1
- garlic 3 cloves, chopped finely
- bay leaves 5
- pork sausages 800g
- brown lentils 300g
- potatoes 2, medium, peeled and cut into eighths
- cinnamon ½ stick
- tomato passata 4 tbsp
Method
To make a soffritto, dice the celery, carrot and fennel fairly small, almost lentil size. Begin to sweat them over a medium heat in 2 tablespoons of olive oil with a pinch of salt.
Wash the lemon, quarter and cut the segments into three pieces each. Rinse the lentils in a sieve.
Add the garlic to the soffritto, followed by the bay leaves. Squeeze pieces of sausage meat from their skins straight into the pot. Add the lentils, potatoes, lemon, cinnamon and passata, and then cover with an inch of cold water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer.
Cook adding cupfuls of water when needed. In this dish, the lentils should be completely soft, not al dente. This will take about 50 minutes.
Turn the heat off, check the seasoning and add a liberal glug of olive oil.
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