Simple Gascon sausages and beans

We felt like cooking this weekend but since I have a killer cold I didn't want anything too complicated. I found this recipe in Diana Henry's "Pure Simple Cooking" and it was easy. As luck would have it we had the Toulouse sausage that we made in the feezer. The same ones we used in our Cassoulet. We also just happened to have some pork belly.

First off was browning everything.



Really as simple as that because after you brown you just throw the rest of the stuff together and bake for 2 hours.

Simple Gascon sausages and Beans

1/4 C olive oil
8 oz bacon lardons or fatback
12 good quality sausage, preferably Toulouse
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stock, chopped
2 carrots, cut into small cubes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes in puree
1 (14 oz) cans cannellini beans, one drained, the other not
1 1/8 C wine, chicken stock, or water (I used wine of course)
1 bay leaf, a small handful of parsley leaves, and the chopped leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
1 1/4 C fresh white bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350. Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the lardons and sausage all over. Put them into a shallow broad casserole dish. Add everything else, except the bread crumbs, and season really well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle a third of the bread crumbs on top. Bake for 2 hours. Sprinkle on the rest of the bread crumbs in two separate batches during cooking time. Stir in the previous sprinkling of crumbs before adding the next batch.

2. Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning toward the end of the cooking time.




The other thing we made was Smashed Roasted Marble Potatoes from Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller. We checked the book out of the library to see if we wanted to invest in buying this 50.00 puppy. I think that would be a YES.

Although the stuff in this cookbook looks great, the one that I tried was less than exciting so I am not going to bother posting the recipe. You would be better off just roasting some potatoes after tossing them in some olive oil and sprinkling with your favorite herbs.

Last but not least Dr Food requested to be featured on my blog. So he made me lunch. I don't take this for granted by any means. Anytime someone will cook for ME is MY lucky day (well almost always because it depends on who is cooking). Dr food made me some tasty quesadillas!



Actually, they were damn good. Not only does Dr Food make quesadillas, but most everything I post on here is made by him as well as me. We are a cooking duo. Lucy and Ricky, Julia and Jacques...well you get what I mean.



He even did the dishes.