Classic Italian Lentils with Sausages

Aaah, a nice easy supper with a storecupboard feel: lentils and sausages. I love it, it's tasty, filling and cheap, plus it's comforting on a chilly evening when your boiler's broken!

Pop the kettle on to boil first thing, to make up a pint of stock, and chop an onion, a couple of sticks of celery, a few cloves of garlic and a pepper.

Stick some oil in a pan to heat up and add the garlic, celery and onion. After they've softened a bit, add in a sprinkle of dried chilli and, if you have any, a slice of bacon cut into the pan with scissors. Stir it up and leave it to cook for a while. I would usually add a bay leaf too but I forgot today.


Get the sausages under the grill pretty sharpish, to make sure they're cooked through around the same time as the lentils will be - sausages always seem to take longer than I think they will! I wish I had proper Italian sausages but normal ones are still lovely. There's no need to peirce most modern sausages, there's less water in them these days so they don't actually go bang!

Throw a cup of lentils into the pan with everything else and stir them, let them warm up a bit before adding a tin of tomatoes, the pepper peices and a cup of the stock. As it cooks, add more stock when needed.


When the sausages and lentils are almost done, around half an hour or so, add a couple of capfuls of vodka, salt, a tiny amount of sugar, the merest drizzle of red wine vinegar, pepper and chopped thyme. Give it 5-10 minutes at a simmer then take off the heat and mix in some fresh, chopped basil. Lovely.

Baked Lentil Stuffed Peppers (serve with wine)

I had some really gorgeous looking romano peppers in the fridge and, as I also had an overwhelming craving for lentils plus a veggie coming for dinner, I thought I'd try putting peppers and lentils together. There is precedent! I found inspiration on The Vegan Foodie's blog, and although, as always, I need to work with what I have rather than to someone elses recipe, I think this turned out pretty well.

I fried up some garlic, celery and onions, with cumin, ground coriander, dried chilli, sliced spring greens, cubed carrot and courgette until sort of half cooked. Then I added a load of green lentils (about 2 cups), a tin of tomatoes, a few bay leaves and about a pint of vegetable stock. Brought it up to a bubble and eft it be with a lid on for about 20 minutes. Reduced it down a bit towards the end and added salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

After cutting the peppers in half lengthways and scooping out the seeds, I laid them on an oiled baking tray and spooned the lentil mix in, topping it with a mixture of bread crumbs, parsley and grated pecorino and drizzled a bit of olive oil over the top.

Popped it in the oven for about half an hour at 180 degrees. Served with green beans and a nice bottle of wine (or three).