Snowed-In Sausage and Bean Bake Thingy

Oh noes! It’s SNOWING. Obviously this means that no one in Ireland will be leaving their houses for the next five days at least.

But what will we eat??

Here’s a brilliantly warming and delicious dinner, the ingredients to which you will probably have lurking around your cupboards. Failing that, you should be able to get the ingredients in your local shop. Snow-food win!

What you need for a lovely Sausage and Bean Bake Thingy for 2 (with leftovers)

4 to 6 of the nicest sausages you can get your hands on, chopped into chunks

1 small/medium sized onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

A few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked *OPTIONAL but makes it taste better

1 red chilli or 1 teaspoon of chilli powder *OPTIONAL

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 x 400g tin of butter beans or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 slices of white bread, crusts and all, cut into large-ish cubes

A little bit of Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Start by heating your oven to about 180 C. Put a small-ish oven-proof dish in on the middle shelf to heat up. Heat some oil in a frying pan on the hob over a medium heat.

Add your chopped chunks of sausages and let them fry til pretty much cooked and nicely browned. This should take about 5 minutes or so.

Add your onions and fry for another 3-4 minutes, stirring so the onions get to say hello to the sausages.

Add your garlic, thyme and chilli (if using). Stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Add your tinned beans and stir around for another minute.

Now add your tinned tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer and let it bubble away for 5 minutes, so the sauce begins to thicken slightly.

Meanwhile, put your bread chunks into a bowl and pour a generous amount of olive oil in, so that all the bread pieces are nicely coated. This will help them crisp up while not drying out. Season with salt and pepper.

Take out your heated oven-proof dish – with oven mitts, mind – and pour your sauce in. Scatter your oiled bread chunks over the sauce. Now grate some Parmesan over the top and pop into the oven for 15 minutes or thereabouts, until the bread chunks are lovely and golden. But not burnt. That would not be good.

Serve up and tuck in!

Categories: Dinner, Lunch

I Can Has Cook?

Tackling the culinary and grammatical arts in simultaneous mouthfuls.

21 Comments

Share this:

21 Comments