Pigs in blankets cassoulet

Prepare: less than 30 mins
Cook: 30 mins to 1 hour
Serve: Serves 4–6
Dietary: Dairy-free Egg-free Nut-free

This is hearty, warming and a real family favourite with all the flavours of Christmas – pigs in blankets and sage. Choose a chipolata sausage that is full of flavour and herbs.

By Mary Berry

From A Mary Berry Christmas

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Ingredients

For the cassoulet

12 chipolata sausages
12 bacon rashers
2 tbsp sunflower oil
3 large banana shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
4 celery sticks, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 tbsp plain flour
200ml/7fl oz white wine
300ml/10fl oz chicken or vegetable stock
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
dash sugar
400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To finish

1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves
lemon, finely grated zest only

Recipe tips

Method

Wrap each sausage with a rasher of bacon. Brown the sausages in a large deep saucepan over a high heat until dark golden brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate.
Heat the oil in the same pan. Fry the shallots and celery over a high heat for about 3–4 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for 10 seconds.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir into the mixture. Slowly pour in the wine, stirring to combine. Add the stock, tomatoes, purée and sugar and bring to the boil. Add the beans and season with salt and pepper.
Return the sausages to the pan and gently simmer over a medium heat, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced and thickened a little and the sausages are cooked through.
To finish, mix the mustard, sage and lemon zest together in a small ramekin. Spoon into the cassoulet and stir through just before serving. Serve hot.

Recipe tips

Replace the pork sausages with vegetarian sausages if preferred. Brown them as per the recipe but only add the vegetarian sausages to the cassoulet for about 10 minutes of the cooking time as they are less robust than meat sausages and may break.