The French cassoulet, simplified.
Why you should cook this
French cassoulet, simplified, weeknight-ised. Eight Italian pork sausages browned in a hot oven-safe pot. Soffritto of onion, carrot, celery sweated low until almost translucent. Garlic, white wine, two tins of cannellini beans, San Marzano tomatoes, chicken stock, rosemary, bay. Topped with breadcrumbs and a slug of olive oil before the lid comes off. The whole thing simmers in the oven for forty minutes uncovered until the top crusts and the inside thickens.
Use proper Italian sausages from a butcher. The cheap supermarket snags don’t have the fat or the fennel and the dish falls flat. Don’t stir during the bake. The crust is the point. Slice the sausages into three-centimetre pieces after browning, before they go back into the pot. Cannellini, not borlotti (borlotti go mushy in this time). Two cans, drained, rinsed. The breadcrumbs and oil on top is the cassoulet move, the south-of-France bit. Eat with crusty bread, a glass of Côtes du Rhône, and a green salad with lemon dressing.
What to drink with it
A young French syrah, a Cynar Spritz (our recipe), or a Belgian dark ale. Crusty bread.
Notes from the kitchen
Use real Italian sausages. Pork, fennel seeds, garlic. The cheap snags don’t have the flavour to carry the dish. Let the top crust. Don’t stir during the bake. The crust is the point.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C fan. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large oven-safe pot. Brown sausages 3 minutes per side. Set aside.
- Add onion, carrot and celery to the pot. Cook 10 minutes. Add garlic, cook 1 minute.
- Add wine. Reduce by half. Add tomatoes, beans, stock, tomato paste, rosemary and thyme.
- Slice sausages into 3cm pieces. Return to pot. Stir gently.
- Top with breadcrumbs. Drizzle with remaining oil.
- Bake 40-45 minutes uncovered until top is golden and the sauce has thickened.
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Mushy beans
You added the beans too early or skipped the drain. Stir in last forty-five minutes only, drained well.
Bland bake
Cheap snags. Spend on real Italian sausages with fennel and garlic in them.
Variations worth knowing
Toulouse cassoulet style
Add 200g of duck confit and 100g of pork belly. Closer to the French original. Three-hour bake.
Spanish chorizo
Replace Italian sausage with cured chorizo. Add a teaspoon of smoked paprika to the soffritto.
Lamb merguez
Replace pork sausage with North African lamb merguez. Add a teaspoon of cumin and harissa.
Leftovers and make ahead
Three days fridge, three months frozen. Reheat covered at 180 degrees. Even better the second day.