Baked sausages with olives and onions

This is a rustic dish of bangers, simply cooked in the oven in a rich onion sauce. For this recipe, try to use pure pork sausages with no added starch, coarsely ground in the southern French or Italian style.

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  35 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 60 ml (¼ cup) olive oil
• 4 onions, thinly sliced
• 4 fresh bay leaves
• 8 thyme sprigs
• 1 anchovy fillet, chopped
• 100 g black olives
• 8 (about 1 kg) pork and fennel sausages, or similar
• crusty bread, roast potatoes or cooked polenta, to serve

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C. Heat oil in a large, heavy-based pan over medium heat, and cook the onions, bay leaves and half the thyme, stirring regularly, for 15 minutes or until onions are light golden. Add the anchovy fillet and cook for a further 2 minutes or until melted. Stir in olives and remaining thyme.

Arrange the sausages in the onion mixture and bake, turning halfway, for 20 minutes or until the sausages are golden and cooked through.

Serve hot with crusty bread, roasted spuds or even polenta.

As seen in Feast Magazine, Issue 12, pg39.

Photography by Alan Benson

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.