Sausage, bean and fennel pot

We are in the last few days of packing and leaving Leeds for the foreseeable future and so as you can imagine there isn't a huge amount of food in the fridge. This is one dish that I came up with from the last morsels we had. As we have now packed most of our kitchen away this is a rather simple dish to prepare and can easily be prepared earlier in the day to alleviate the stresses in the evening. I wouldn't call this a bake as such but a conglomeration of a few simple, delicious ingredients into a one pot wonder.

Sausage, bean and fennel pot

Ingredients

Serves 3

6 Toulouse sausages

2 fennel bulbs

2 x 300 g tins cannellini beans

250 g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

5-10 garlic cloves, depending on taste

1/2 lemon zest and juice

1/4 tsp thyme

olive oil

salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4. Place a griddle pan on a high heat and trim the tops off the fennel bulbs and set aside. Slice the fennel (approx 1 cm thick) from top to bottom. Make a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper, brush the slices lightly with this mixture and char-grill fiercely until softened with lovely grilled marks on both sides. Do the rest in batches and place aside on a plate.

2. Place all the tomatoes, skins on, in a roasting dish leaving a few for later (preferably on the vine). Drizzle with plenty of oil and toss with the thyme, salt and pepper. Dot the garlic cloves, in their skins, in and around the tomatoes. Roast in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until soft and wrinkled. 

3. You have two choices at this point; either part cook the sausages under a grill and set aside or leave them raw for baking later. If you precook, you will ensure that you get a nice colour on your sausages, although this is not essential - it is purely for aesthetic reasons.

4. Drain the beans, place into a bowl and toss with the lemon zest, juice, salt and pepper then set aside for the minute.

5. To assemble, arrange a base layer of the char-grilled fennel on the bottom of your oven dish and gently place the succulent roasted tomatoes in the middle as if you are leaving a moat around the outside. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and sprinkle around the dish. The last of the fennel slices are to be placed on top of the tomatoes in the centre. Pour the seasoned beans around in the "moat" to surround the tomatoes in the centre. Finally arrange the sausages on top of the beans around the edge and top the fennel with the raw tomatoes on the vine. Drizzle generously with olive oil, season the tomatoes with salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. 

6. Dish up and drizzle with a little more oil, lemon juice, fennel fronds. Serve with a big handful of fresh salad leaves and perhaps some fresh crusty bread to mop up the juices.