Ready, Steady, Cook! Country Hopping.

No I’m not off on a gastronomic holiday, in a fabulous overseas cookery school.  I wish I could say I was but alas it isn’t happening. 

Ready, Steady, Cook!  This is the second blog challenge from Violets Pantry.  Details of the first challenge can be found here, if you wish to look.  Given that Christmas and New Year (particularly expensive times of the year I’m sure you’ll agree) have just gone by the theme for this challenge is cooking on a budget.  Violets set a budget of just £5.00 or the equivalent in your countries currency.

Cooking on a budget is not a concept I entertain on a regular basis.  Not because I have the financial luxury of not having to but simply because I tend to just use the ingredients I have stashed in my cupboards/fridge/freezer without a thought as to how much it cost.  Nor do I actively budget for my shopping, I just add to my shopping basket as I go – maybe I have some kind of inbuilt calculator that allows me to do this subconsciously, LOL.

Due to the above this challenge was certainly tricky.  My immediate thought was to cook something vegetarian but I then realised that I had some luganega sausage in the freezer waiting to be used and that I was due to create a recipe with this for my forthcoming book – not only two but three tasks completed in one go.  The resulting meal was a Sausage & Bean Bake made with luganega sausage, cannellini beans, chickpeas and lentil mix; see below for the recipe.

The lovely Anna sent me a copy of Flavours of Greece (Rosemary Barron) and this provided the inspiration for my recipe.  This book paints a wonderfully evocative portrait of a cuisine still seems in many ways tied to the seasons and the rhythms of village life.  Thank you very much Anna!

As I was using an Italian sausage and a Greek recipe book for inspiration, a little country hopping was going on but sometimes that’s good and sometimes not so.  Here the flavours melded beautifully, a real success.

Robust flavours dominate this country style winter dish, which is perfect for those long cold winter nights and days at home as it requires long slow cooking, and a bit of day before preparation too.  This would also make a wonderful vegetarian meal, if the sausages were removed and vegetable stock used in place of the chicken stock.

I was very surprised that I actually came in under budget, only by 10 pence but still under nevertheless.  I used all organic produce so should you wish to do so the cost could be reduced further, I guesstimate by around another 25%.

So here’s the photo of the Sausage & Bean Bake:

The Cost:

I have calculated the cost of each item at the weight used, so for example if 1kg of luganega sausage cost £10.00 and I used 200g I have calucated the cost at £2.00.

Items used that I considered store cupboard were dried herbs, bread, garlic, lemon and olive oil.

Luganega Sausage: £2.00

Organic Chick Peas: £0.20

Organic Cannellini Beans: £0.25

Organic Tinned Tomatoes £0.65

Red Lentils: £0.20

Yellow Split Peas: £0.10

Shallots: £0.50

Chicken Stock: £0.00 as I already had some in the freezer

White Wine: £1.00

Total Cost: £4.90

NB. With the exception of the luganega (which was bought from Fratelli Camisa) all items were purchased from Waitrose Supermarket.

The Recipe:

• 2 tablespoons Greek or Italian olive oil plus extra for drizzling the bread
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
• 6 shallots, peeled but left whole
• 200g Luganega sausage, skinned and cut into centimetre pieces
• 1 450 g tin tomatoes
• 1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and pre-cooked
• 1 cup dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and pre-cooked
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 cup yellow split peas
• 1 tablespoon oregano, preferably ‘rigani’
• 1 teaspoon lemon thyme
• 1 teaspoon Greek thyme
• Zest of one lemon, finely chopped.
• 1 tablespoon parsley, plus 1 teaspoon for the bread
• 150 ml white wine, preferably Greek or Italian
• 250 ml chicken stock
• Salt and pepper
• 2 2cm thick slices of white country bread

1. Heat the olive oil in a large casserole dish and add the shallots, fry until golden then add the luganega and garlic.  Saute until the sausage is just beginning to colour.
2. Add the wine and allow to bubble gently until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
3. Add the dried herbs, lemon zest, beans, chickpeas, split peas and lentils and gently mix.
4. Add the tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil and allow to simmer for one hour.  Keep checking the volume of liquid and add more stock/water as necessary.  Season with salt and pepper.
5. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180′c or the equivalent (see Conversions Page).
6. Drizzle the bread with plenty of olive oil (on both sides) then place on top of the casserole, sprinkle over the parsley and transfer to a pre-heated oven for 45minutes.
7. Serve drizzled with olive oil, with more bread alongside.

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