Sausages with lentils and romesco sauce

The kind of comfort food I crave

Sausages and lentils is such a classic, comforting combination. I remember eating it for the first time in Italy as a child and then my mum cooking it at home and now I cook it for my own children. I love how dishes can become part of your family.

This is proper, hearty comfort food with none of the stodge.

I’ve cooked so many variations of this dish over the years but this is my current favourite way of having it. The romesco sauce is optional and I don’t always make it as the lentils and sausages alone are great but honestly it works so well. It takes a few minutes to blitz up - you literally just chuck everything in a blender. So it’s a few moments of effort but I assure it is well worth it.

I think this way of cooking lentils could convert even the most ardent of lentil haters. They are so flavoursome, creamy and delicious. And actually these lentils, just as they are written here, work really well as a simple pasta sauce. Trust me, I know it sounds a bit odd but it really works. An easy (and delicious) way of adding some protein to your pasta.

Any kind of sausages will work and I don’t really like to play favourites when it comes to sausages. But I do like the fatter kinds you can get for these, like a good Cumberland but of course any sausage you like is going to work. Sometimes I cook the lentils from scratch just like my mum always did, but here where time is really of the essence we are going to cheat and use the cooked pouches. But I will also tell you in the Notes section how to do it the other way too. It doesn’t take too long so it’s perhaps helpful to know both ways. And again, much like with the sausages, any sort of lentil will work in theory - the tinned green kind are perfectly nice but I find these days I am a lentil snob and I love the French Puy lentils - or there are similar Italian ones you can get which look nearly identical. For the pouches you can get branded ones or supermarket own ones - you’re looking for French style green lentils.

This incidentally is what Italians serve traditionally on New Year's Day I believe so it feels apt to share this at this time of year. I read that the coin shape of the lentils and the sausages when you slice them help to ensure the eater enjoys a year of prosperity.

Serves 2