It is 5 November, Bonfire Night. A chance to light up the sky with shooting stars of pink and gold, dance around the flames and to warm all-comers with a pot of fat sausages and beans from the oven. Even if your idea of commemorating the failure of the Gunpowder Plot runs to little more than writing your name in the night air with a sparkler, generous amounts of one-pot fare is crucial. Revelry isn’t half as much fun on an empty stomach.
Historically, this night has a habit of being a bit nippy or wet enough to extinguish your Roman candle. Whatever weather is thrown at us tonight, we will need something substantial on our plates. Given everyone’s determination not to miss a single firework, dinner is most likely be eaten standing up, from deep bowls with a fork. Sausages, fennel-seed-flecked and sticky with chilli sauce, will be on the table this year. I like a coarse-cut, spicy sausage to cook with haricot beans. The pork, fennel seeds and black-pepper-seasoned sausages that hang in Italian grocers, displayed in plump clusters tied together with string, to be exact. Of course, any will fit the bill, as long as they are so generously filled they look like their skins are about to burst.
I shall be baking small, whole beetroot at the same time, their earthy notes softened with ricotta and crisp pumpkin and hemp seeds. I may add a little soured or double cream to the cheese, to give a softer, more sauce-like accompaniment. There will be baked potatoes, too (for my money, they are pretty much non-negotiable), emerging, crisp-skinned and fluffy-fleshed, from the oven. Copious quantities of butter and a tongue-tingling farmhouse cheddar will, of course, be on hand.
Baked sausages with harissa and tomatoes
The recipe can be upscaled easily to cater for large numbers, but add the harissa paste to taste rather than simply multiplying the amount.
Serves 2-3
olive oil 2 tbsp
sausages 6 large
onion 1
rosemary 5 sprigs
harissa paste 2 tsp
tomatoes 4, medium
haricot or cannellini beans 2 x 400g cans
chicken stock 200ml
Using a little of the oil, brown the sausages in a shallow, ovenproof pan over a low to moderate heat, turning them regularly so they brown as evenly as possible. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.
Peel the onion and roughly chop it. Remove the sausages and set them aside, then add the remaining oil to the pan and then the onion, letting it soften and colour lightly. It should be the palest gold. Remove the leaves from 2 of the sprigs of rosemary, finely chop them, then add them to the onions with a pinch of salt.
Stir the harissa paste into the onions. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes have started to soften. Drain the beans, rinse them under running water, stir them into the onions, then pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, then return the sausages to the pan. Check the seasoning then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Baked beetroot with seeded ricotta
I have occasionally baked beetroots from raw, rather than boiling them first, and have never been happy with the result, finding the long cooking makes them dry. Pre-boiling and wrapping them in tin foil is a good way to keep them moist during baking, as it encourages them to cook in their own steam. For a creamy accompaniment, add a few tablespoons of double cream or thick yogurt to the ricotta.
Serves 4 as a side dish
beetroot 4, medium-sized
thyme 12 sprigs
rosemary 4 sprigs
bay leaves 4
olive oil 3 tbsp
For the ricotta:
ricotta 200g
orange 1 small
hemp seeds 1 tbsp
pumpkin seeds 2 tbsp
parsley 3 tbsp, chopped
Bring a large, deep saucepan of water to the boil and salt it generously. Scrub and trim the beetroots, taking care not to pierce the skin. Boil them whole and unpeeled for 40-45 minutes until they are they are fully tender. You should be able to pierce them effortlessly with a skewer. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.
Put the ricotta in a mixing bowl. Finely grate the zest of the orange and add to the ricotta with the hemp and pumpkin seeds and the chopped parsley. Season with a little salt and a few twists of black pepper.
Place a large piece of kitchen foil in a roasting tin. When the beetroots are tender, remove them from the water, peel off the skins – they should come away easily – then place the beetroots on the foil. Put the sprigs of thyme and rosemary and the bay in a mixing bowl. Add a little salt and black pepper, then pour in the olive oil. Toss the seasonings and oil together then spoon over the beetroots. Loosely scrunch the edges of the foil together to make a parcel around the beetroots, then bake for about 45 minutes.
Remove the roasting tin from the oven, unwrap the foil, then put the beetroots on a serving plate. Slice them open and place generous spoonfuls of the seeded ricotta mixture on each one.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
