Cooking without a kitchen no.3. Jamie's best sausages with braised lentils and crispy prosciutto for a returning son
Son number two arrived back from LA today after a year studying there. We had the whole family together (only a flying visit by number one son) and we were joined by cousin Barney who is doing work experience with me.However despite the desire to celebrate we are still without a kitchen so we had to use a bit of ingenuity plus the BBQ and camping gaz cooker again.
We had lovely italian sausages from the local deli (Jamie says you can use cumberland for this but frankly I take issue with this ... not often I disagree with his bruvva-ness but on this occasion I say NO to anything other than the proper Italian salsiccia.
The lentils tasted good and the addition of the crispy prosciutto was an interesting little spin.
We added a little had chopped Salsa Verde to give it a bit of a lift.
We polished off a bottle of nytimber to toast his return in one piece and had a nice bottle of Il Bruciato with the sausages.
all in all it was a lovely evening
ingredients
• 200g good small green or brown lentils
• bouquet garni
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2–3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• good-quality olive oil
• 1kg Italian sausages
• a few bunches of fresh sage leaves
• 8 slices of prosciutto
Method
Give the lentils a wash and place them in a casserole-type pan. Cover them nicely with water and then add a bouquet garni. Squash your tomatoes and add to the pan with the garlic cloves. Bring everything to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your lentils, and stirring occasionally until tender - you want the lentils to be soft and a pleasure to eat but still holding their shape. Keep an eye on the pan as they cook to make sure they don’t dry out. You can do this part on a gas hob, but also on the barbie while you’re waiting for the embers to die down after you’ve lit them.
When your lentils are cooked, remove the bouquet garni and the tomatoes ( we left ours in and just mashed them up), and drain away most of the remaining cooking liquid. Dress your lentils like a salad with the red wine vinegar and twice as much olive oil. Mush up the garlic, and stir it in then season carefully to taste. Keep warm.
To cook your sausages, rub with olive oil then put on the medium-hot part of the barbie. Keep moving them around at the beginning, as there’ll probably be flames from the fat hitting the heat.
Once the sausages have had 15 minutes and you think they’re nearly cooked, place them on the cooler part of your barbie. Lay your sage leaves over them and drizzle with olive oil. Put your prosciutto on the barbie and grill briefly until crispy.
Pile everything back into a large dish. I like to serve it with steamed broccoli, crusty bread and, best of all, gorgeous salsa verde (jamie prefers Salsa Rossa) spooned over the top.
hand chopped Salsa verde
ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp capers
1 garlic clove peeled and crushed
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
bunch of flat leaf parsley
handful of rocket leaves
10 mint leaves
200ml extra virgin olive oil
method
roughly chop the capers and place them in a bowl with the garlic, mustard and wine vinegar.
Wash the herbs and leaves and chop finely. Add to the bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Pour over the olive oil and stir to combine.
We had lovely italian sausages from the local deli (Jamie says you can use cumberland for this but frankly I take issue with this ... not often I disagree with his bruvva-ness but on this occasion I say NO to anything other than the proper Italian salsiccia.
The lentils tasted good and the addition of the crispy prosciutto was an interesting little spin.
We added a little had chopped Salsa Verde to give it a bit of a lift.
We polished off a bottle of nytimber to toast his return in one piece and had a nice bottle of Il Bruciato with the sausages.
all in all it was a lovely evening
ingredients
• 200g good small green or brown lentils
• bouquet garni
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2–3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• good-quality olive oil
• 1kg Italian sausages
• a few bunches of fresh sage leaves
• 8 slices of prosciutto
Method
Give the lentils a wash and place them in a casserole-type pan. Cover them nicely with water and then add a bouquet garni. Squash your tomatoes and add to the pan with the garlic cloves. Bring everything to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your lentils, and stirring occasionally until tender - you want the lentils to be soft and a pleasure to eat but still holding their shape. Keep an eye on the pan as they cook to make sure they don’t dry out. You can do this part on a gas hob, but also on the barbie while you’re waiting for the embers to die down after you’ve lit them.
When your lentils are cooked, remove the bouquet garni and the tomatoes ( we left ours in and just mashed them up), and drain away most of the remaining cooking liquid. Dress your lentils like a salad with the red wine vinegar and twice as much olive oil. Mush up the garlic, and stir it in then season carefully to taste. Keep warm.
To cook your sausages, rub with olive oil then put on the medium-hot part of the barbie. Keep moving them around at the beginning, as there’ll probably be flames from the fat hitting the heat.
Once the sausages have had 15 minutes and you think they’re nearly cooked, place them on the cooler part of your barbie. Lay your sage leaves over them and drizzle with olive oil. Put your prosciutto on the barbie and grill briefly until crispy.
Pile everything back into a large dish. I like to serve it with steamed broccoli, crusty bread and, best of all, gorgeous salsa verde (jamie prefers Salsa Rossa) spooned over the top.
hand chopped Salsa verde
ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp capers
1 garlic clove peeled and crushed
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
bunch of flat leaf parsley
handful of rocket leaves
10 mint leaves
200ml extra virgin olive oil
method
roughly chop the capers and place them in a bowl with the garlic, mustard and wine vinegar.
Wash the herbs and leaves and chop finely. Add to the bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Pour over the olive oil and stir to combine.
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