I decided to make (what turned out to be) a delicious sausage casserole — the likes of which I’m unlikely to be able recreate — but I thought I’d jot down the recipe for future reference.

Ingredients

• Sausages, pork, 8
• Celery, 3 ribs, chopped into 1cm pieces
• Carrots, 2 medium, scrubbed, quartered lengthways and cut into 1cm pieces
• Chestnut mushrooms, 6 large, cut into ⅛ pieces
• Onion, 1 large, diced
• Red bell pepper, 1 large, deseeded, chopped into 2cm pieces
• Garlic, 4 cloves, minced
• Ginger, 3cm, grated
• Chopped tomatoes, 400g tin
• Flat-leaf parsley, small handful, chopped
• Cumin, ½ tsp
• Smoked paprika, ½ tsp
• Vegetable stock, ½ pint
• Tomato purée, a good squirt
• Red wine, a glug (if there’s any knocking about)
• Worcestershire sauce, a glug
• Thyme, small bunch, tied into a bundle
• Olive oil
• Salt + pepper

Instructions

1. Take a large skillet, heat a glug of olive oil on a medium heat, brown the sausages then set aside on some kitchen paper.
2. Take a heavy casserole pan (with a lid!), heat a glug of olive oil on a medium heat.
3. Add the onion, garlic and ginger followed by salt + pepper and sweat until the onion becomes translucent.
4. Add the carrot, celery and bell pepper, stir, and cook for ~10 mins until the veg have started to turn.
5. Add the cumin and smoked paprika followed by a good squirt of tomato purée and stir well. Cook until the spices have gone somewhat tacky — keep stirring frequently so the spices don’t stick or burn.
6. Add the chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock and Worcestershire sauce, followed by a glug of red wine if you have any knocking about.
7. Finally add the mushrooms, sausages, bundle of thyme and stir well — I like to cut the sausages in half because it makes it easier to stir.
8. Put the lid on the casserole pan and cook on a low heat for ~2 hours, stirring occasionally.
9. Stir in the flat-leaf parsley before serving!