Salsiccia e Fagioli (Italian Fennel Sausages with Borlotti beans)

Serving grilled pork sausages with Heinz beans is a common sight in the UK, particularly the morning after a night out, where you may pop a couple of slices of buttered toast for to soak up the residue alcohol from the night before.

Who would have thought the Italian also has their take on sausage and beans thou a little more refine and minus the tomato sauce (!!). I'm spoiled to have access to an Italian grocery nearby where they stock proper Italian fennel sausages (as well as other goodies); alternatively chipolata will do just fine. 

As per my previous post, Italian food is all about using simple but the best ingredients you can afford, even the extra virgin olive oil, get the best and most pure stuff you can lay your hands on. Trust me, it really does taste better. 

If you are planning to make this for breakfast at the weekend, don't think this can be made in 15 minutes - O.K. it is possible if you use tinned borlotti beans instead of the dry stuff. I guess my point is don't forget to soak the beans the night before!!

Serves 4

600g Italian fennel sausages (or chipolata) 

3 gloves of garlic, crushed

2 string of fresh thyme, finely chopped

A knob of butter

Extra virgin olive oil

300g dry borlotti beans, soak overnight in plenty of fresh water

1L beef stock

1. Preheat the oven grill to 180. Crush the garlic and thyme in a mortar and pestle, add in a generous dash of olive oil and mix well.

2. Rub the mixture all over the sausages and place them on to the oven grill pan. Let it grill for 20 - 25 minutes or and turn them over halfway. The idea is to cook until they are browned. 

3. Meanwhile, drain the soaked borlotti beans and place them in a large enough saucepan. Pour in the stock, place it on medium heat and bring it to boil then reduce to simmer for for 35 - 45 minutes. They need to be soft enough so they can be mashed easily using a potato masher. 

4. Once they are soft enough drain them but reserve 2 tbsp of the stock. Use a potato masher to crush them lightly so they are slightly broken. If it is looking a little dry, add in the reserved stock. Season with some salt & pepper.

5. Back to the sausages. Once they are cool enough to touch, cut them diagonally. Just before serving, mix in a knob of butter into the beans to give some gloss. Plate the beans and place the sausages on top.

Risotto ai Funghi (Mushroom Risotto)

Only if I could get my hands on some fresh porcini then I would have named this dish "Risotto ai Porcini" instead. Instead I resulted in using Sainsbury's British Speciality Mushrooms, which consist of shiitake, oyster mushroom, eryngii & maitake - well that's what was in my punnet and I believe they all vary slightly. 

However, instead of using bog-standard vegetable/ chicken stock cube I actually invested in some porcini stock cube from my local Italian grocery shop. Whenever I step into that shop its like a kid has gone into a sweet shop. I love to look at everything they have on the shelves, and regardless what I went in for, I always walk out with some truffle mortadella. I will have to dedicate a post on it soon... it is absolutely delectable! 

So let's get back to the risotto... True to most Italian cooking, I kept it very simple.

Serves 2

160g arborio rice

20g dried porcini, soak in hot water for 20 minutes before use

1 porcini stock cube (if you can't find them I would suggest soaking the dried porcini with some extra of water)

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 large glass of white wine

3 dollop of butter

200g of speciality mushrooms, cut into bit size

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

1. Soak the dried porcini mushroom in hotel water.

2. Finely chopped the onion; sliced the garlic cloves; dilute the stock cube with boiling water and cut the speciality mushrooms into bite size.

3. Place a frying pan on medium heat, add a dollop of butter, wait for it to melt and sizzle.

4. Add the garlic, cook until lightly brown before adding the speciality mushrooms. The idea is not to cook the mushroom thoroughly but to add some colour and garlic flavour to them. Also be careful they are not overcooked (become watery). Set them aside. 

5. Place a deep casserole dish (I used B size Le Creuset) over medium heat, add the other dollop of butter, wait for it to melt and sizzle then add in the onion. Cook until lightly brown before adding the arborio rice. Make sure the onion mixes well with the rice.

6. Pour in the white wine, stir the rice until the wine is evaporated. Add in the rehydrated porcini and the soaking water. Keep staring. 

7. When the water is nearly evaporated, gradually pour in the stock and keep staring. Add more stock when the rice is looking dry. Repeat this until the rice is cooked to al dente. 

8. When the rice is almost cooked, reheat the fresh mushrooms in the frying pan. Season with some salt & pepper. 

9. Add in a handful of grated Parmesan cheese to the rice and mix well.

10. Just before serving, add the last dollop of butter and mix well. This is to give the rice a bit of shine.

11. Serve up the rice and place the fresh mushrooms on top, then sprinkle with more Parmesan. 

Gressingham duck legs marinated in homemade plum sauce

I haven't had the luxury of time to forage for berries in the wild last year, also the community orchard nearby has been stripped bare by some greedy leeches in the early seasons, so no apples or plums either. Indeed this is very disappointing as my pantry collection requires urgent replenishing!

I recently put my last bottle of plum sauce into use, and just realised I did not write a post on making plum sauce! I gathered over 6kg worth of plums last year and made A LOT of plum sauce. They taste even better after being left on the shelves for a year.

The end result is Gressingham duck legs marinated in plum sauce overnight, grilled and serving with steamed chard, carrots and roast diced potatoes. If I may say so the combination was gorgeous. The earthiness of the chard balanced the sweetness of the plum sauce, which also has a hint of sharpness! 

Serves 2

2 Gressingham duck legs (or duck breasts if preferred) 

2 maris piper potatoes, diced

1 bundle of red Swiss chard, separate the leafs and the stems

250ml of plum sauce 

Dollop of organic unsalted butter

1. Place the duck legs in a freezer bag and pour in the plum sauce then securely seal it. Make sure the legs are coated with plum sauce all over. Leave in the fridge overnight. 

2. The next day, peel and dice the potatoes, as well as peel and prepare the carrots. You may prefer leaving the skin on which is also fine.

3. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

4. Place a frying pan over medium heat. When it is hot enough add a dollop of butter, wait for it to sizzle then place the duck legs on skin down and cook for 8 - 10 minutes until brown.

5. Transfer the duck legs into a baking tray and carefully pour in the plum sauce so it doesn't touch the skin. Sprinkle a generous amount of sea salt on top.

6. Put the diced potatoes into a separate baking tray, season with salt & pepper and a generous amount of oil. Massage them and place both the duck legs & potatoes into the oven, with the duck legs on the higher shelve. 

7. Cook in the oven for an hour or so. It is OK to have duck a little pink in the middle and that's how I have mine, so feel free to adjust the timing in accordance to your taste. 

8. Make sure the potatoes are periodically tossed and turned so they don't become stuck to the tray.

9. Around 20 minutes before the duck legs are ready, boil the kettle and place the carrots & stem of swiss chard into the steamer and steam for 15 minutes or until soften. Add in the swiss chard leaves and steam for further 5 minutes.

10. Plate up the duck legs, diced potatoes and vegetables. Before ordaining the dish with the plum sauce juice, you may wish to spoon out as much of the duck fat as possible.