Snowed-In Sausage and Bean Bake Thingy

Oh noes!  It’s SNOWING.  Obviously this means that no one in Ireland will be leaving their houses for the next five days at least.

But what will we eat??

Here’s  a brilliantly warming and delicious dinner, the ingredients to which you will probably have lurking around your cupboards.  Failing that, you should be able to get the ingredients in your local shop.  Snow-food win!

What you need for a lovely Sausage and Bean Bake Thingy for 2 (with leftovers)

4 to 6 of the nicest sausages you can get your hands on, chopped into chunks

1 small/medium sized onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

A few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked *OPTIONAL but makes it taste better

1 red chilli or 1 teaspoon of chilli powder *OPTIONAL

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 x 400g tin of butter beans or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 slices of white bread, crusts and all, cut into large-ish cubes

A little bit of Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Start by heating your oven to about 180 C.  Put a small-ish oven-proof dish in on the middle shelf to heat up.  Heat some oil in a frying pan on the hob over a medium heat.

Add your chopped chunks of sausages and let them fry til pretty much cooked and nicely browned.  This should take about 5 minutes or so.

Add your onions and fry for another 3-4 minutes, stirring so the onions get to say hello to the sausages.

Add your garlic, thyme and chilli (if using).  Stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Add your tinned beans and stir around for another minute.

Now add your tinned tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer and let it bubble away for 5 minutes, so the sauce begins to thicken slightly.

Meanwhile, put your bread chunks into a bowl and pour a generous amount of olive oil in, so that all the bread pieces are nicely coated.  This will help them crisp up while not drying out.  Season with salt and pepper.

Take out your heated oven-proof dish – with oven mitts, mind – and pour your sauce in.  Scatter your oiled bread chunks over the sauce.  Now grate some Parmesan over the top and pop into the oven for 15 minutes or thereabouts, until the bread chunks are lovely and golden.  But not burnt.  That would not be  good.

Serve up and tuck in!


Categories: Dinner, Lunch

21 Comments

  1. I could devour a lot of this right now.. Looks so lovely and wholesome! Might make it next week.. nyoms

  2. It’s a good one for cold nights. Very quick to make too!

    I’m actually going to the kitchen now to scoff the leftovers. ZNOMZ.

  3. That looks scrum. We’ve been thinking along similar lines and have stocked up on butter beans.

  4. Love this! Looks scrumptious. Love the name :) we will all be stock-piling beans and tins if this snow carries on much longer.

    • For real. It’s always good to have a load of tins of things whatever the weather. Usually something I forget to replenish :)

  5. Very tasty looking! (And a decidedly snazzier way to work sausages than the sausage and ketchup sambo option we went with for dinner the other night.)

  6. Sounds like perfect food for winter. And I know what you mean about stocking up. We’ve been away for the past few weekends so our cupboards are bare. It makes coming up with ideas for dinner SO much more difficult. (Note to self: plan a big shopping session this weekend.)
    Btw, I loved the Star Wars pancakes!

  7. That’s so on the to-have list for the next few days!

  8. Hooray for Baked Thingys. I make them all the time! And hooray for snow!

  9. The hubby would be very thankful if I make this extra hot by adding lots and lots of chili powder. Perfect for the wintry nights!

  10. This has my name allll over it later. Nyoms! I’m starting to drool now…

  11. I found last week I totally returned to all that ‘nursery food’ as Nigella would call it, stuff your mum would make for your tea when you came home from school, omelettes, beans, white bread, toasted cheese sandwiches with soup etc… it was totally cupboard food, or stuff you can get from the local spar – so total win to see that recipe! can now posh up my beans and sausages yum yum ! win!

    • Mmmm nursery food – the best! I love comfort food. And now I want a toasted cheese sandwich with soup STAT!

  12. Cheese Toasties brillo with Cully and Sully tomato and basil soup nom nom nom