Smoky, Sticky, One Pot, Ready In 45 Minutes

It is a Tuesday evening in England. The rain has been going since lunch, the light went at half past six, and I have come home cold. There is one pot on the hob, the heavy one with the chipped lid, and the kitchen already smells of onions going soft in oil. This is what I want on a night like this. Not a plate, a bowl.

When I was a boy in Guadeloupe we did not have evenings like this. But we had the pot. My mother kept a ragoût going most Sundays, pork usually, cooked slow with onion, garlic, thyme and a whole chilli dropped in and fished out again before anyone could bite it. Six children, one pot, and somehow it was always enough. At Christmas the pig was the whole celebration: boudin in the morning, ragoût de cochon by the afternoon, and my mother in the middle of it all with a wooden spoon in her hand.

The first thing I fell in love with when I moved to Britain was the sausage. I am serious. A proper butcher’s sausage, coarse and peppery, fat enough to brown properly. Back home our pork went into stews and boudin. So I did what I always do with something new. I put it in my mother’s pot.

This is the result. A sausage casserole that tastes like an English autumn and a Guadeloupe Sunday at the same time. The sausages are browned hard so the skins go sticky. The sauce is tomatoes, stock, peppers and thyme, and then a generous spoon of my Flaming BBQ Sauce, which brings the smoke of the wood fires I grew up with and enough heat to warm you from the inside.

One pot. Forty five minutes. You will make it again next week.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: Caribbean fusion (British comfort food, Guadeloupe heat)
• Prep: 10 minutes • Cook: 35 minutes • Total: 45 minutes
• Serves: 4
• Featured sauce: Flaming BBQ Sauce
• Heat level: 8/10, smoky first, then it builds
• Diet: Dairy free

What you’ll need

Buy the best sausages you can. There are very few ingredients here and the sausage is doing most of the talking, so a cheap, watery one will let you down. I like a thick pork sausage with black pepper in it, from the butcher if you have one. Cumberland is good. For the beans, butter beans go soft and creamy and soak up the sauce. Cannellini or red kidney beans both work if that is what is in the cupboard.

• 8 thick pork sausages (about 500g)
• 1 tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into strips
• 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 5 or 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked (or 1 tsp dried)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 300ml chicken stock
• 6 tbsp Flaming BBQ Sauce, 5 for the pot and 1 to finish
• 1 x 400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Juice of half a lime
• A small handful of flat-leaf parsley or 2 spring onions, chopped, to serve

How I make it

1. Brown the sausages. Put a large, heavy pot over a medium-high heat with the oil. When it shimmers, lay the sausages in and leave them alone. Do not prod them. Turn them every 2 to 3 minutes until they are dark and sticky all over, about 8 minutes in total. They do not need to be cooked through yet. Lift them out onto a plate.

2. Soften the onions. Turn the heat down to medium. Tip the onions into the sausage fat and cook for 5 minutes until soft and starting to catch at the edges. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom as you go. That is flavour, not dirt.

3. Add the peppers. In go the pepper strips. Another 3 minutes, until they lose their rawness and start to bend.

4. Now the garlic and spice. Add the garlic, thyme leaves, smoked paprika and allspice. Stir for one minute only. You want the smell to rise up and hit you, and then you move on before the garlic burns.

5. Build the sauce. Stir in the tomato purée and cook it for 30 seconds. Pour in the chopped tomatoes, the stock and 5 tablespoons of Flaming BBQ Sauce. Drop in the bay leaf. Season with a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper. Bring it up to a bubble.

6. Sausages back in. Nestle the sausages into the sauce along with any juices from the plate. Turn the heat down low, put the lid on but leave it slightly ajar, and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes. Give it a stir halfway. The sauce should be thickening and the sausages should be turning glossy.

7. Add the beans. Stir in the butter beans and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes with the lid off, until the sauce clings to everything. Too thick, add a splash of water. Too thin, give it a few minutes more.

8. Finish it. Take the pot off the heat. Fish out the bay leaf. Stir in the last tablespoon of Flaming BBQ Sauce and the lime juice, then taste. More salt? More lime? Trust your tongue. Scatter the parsley or spring onions over the top and bring the whole pot to the table.

The role of Flaming BBQ Sauce in this dish

A sausage casserole needs three things from its sauce: depth, a little sweetness to balance the tomatoes, and something to lift it out of the ordinary. Most recipes get there with sugar, Worcestershire sauce and a pinch of chilli. I get there with one jar.

Flaming BBQ Sauce is my BBQ sauce with the heat turned up. It is smoky and rich underneath, the way meat tastes when it has been cooked over wood, and then the scotch bonnet comes through on top. In the pot, that smoke soaks into the sausages and the sweetness rounds off the tinned tomatoes so they taste as if they have simmered all afternoon. The heat does not shout. It arrives slowly, and by the second spoonful you are warm.

The last tablespoon stirred in off the heat is the trick. Cooked sauce gives you depth. Raw sauce gives you brightness. You want both.

Tips from my kitchen

• Brown properly or do not bother. Pale sausages make a pale casserole. Let them go dark and sticky before anything else happens. If the pot is small, brown them in two batches.
• Lid ajar, not on. A lid clamped down traps the steam and you end up with a thin sauce. Leaving a gap lets it reduce while the sausages cook through gently.
• Grill them if you like. For less mess, brown the sausages under a hot grill for 15 minutes, turning once, while you make the sauce. Add them at step 6.
• Make it the day before. Like every stew my mother ever cooked, this is better on the second day. Cool it, keep it in the fridge, and reheat it gently with a splash of water.

What to serve it with

Bread first. A crusty loaf torn into pieces for dragging through the sauce is the honest way to eat this. Buttery mashed potato is the British way and I will not argue with it. Plain white rice is how I eat it when I am thinking of home, and it calms everything down if you have gone heavy on the sauce.

For something green, a sharp salad of cucumber, red onion and lime cuts through the richness. And a spoon of my Fresh Herbal Sauce over the top brings a cool, herby freshness that plays beautifully against the smoke.

FAQ

How long does a sausage casserole take to cook?

Mine takes about 35 minutes on the hob, plus 10 minutes of chopping. That is 45 minutes door to bowl, which is why it has become my weeknight pot. The sausages brown for 8 minutes, simmer in the sauce for 20, then the beans go in for a final 8 to 10. To finish it in the oven instead, put the lidded pot in at 180°C (160°C fan) for 30 minutes and add the beans for the last 10.

Do you have to brown the sausages first?

You do not have to, but you should. Browning is where the flavour and the sticky skin come from. A sausage simmered raw in the sauce comes out grey and soft and the whole dish tastes flat. Short on time? Brown them under the grill while you cook the onions.

Can I make sausage casserole in a slow cooker?

Yes. Follow steps 1 to 4 on the hob, then transfer everything to the slow cooker with the tomatoes, purée, stock and 5 tablespoons of Flaming BBQ Sauce. Use 200ml of stock instead of 300ml, because nothing evaporates in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3, stir in the beans for the last 30 minutes, and finish with the lime and the last spoon of sauce.

Can I freeze sausage casserole?

Yes, it freezes very well. Cool it completely, then freeze in portions for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat on the hob until piping hot, adding a splash of water if the sauce has thickened.

Is this too spicy for children?

Flaming BBQ Sauce is a genuine 8 out of 10, so for young children I would swap it for my regular BBQ Sauce, which has the same smoke and sweetness with only a gentle warmth. Or use 3 tablespoons of Flaming instead of 6 and let the adults add more at the table. In my house growing up the chilli went in whole and came out whole, so the children got the flavour without the fire.

Final word from me

This is the pot I put on when I am cold, tired and want to be looked after. It asks almost nothing of you. Brown some sausages, soften some onions, open a tin and a jar, and let it bubble while you take your coat off. In 45 minutes there is a bowl of something smoky and warm in front of you that tastes as if it took all day. Make it for people you love. Make extra. And tell me how it went.

JP