Sausage and lentil supper

There's something comforting about a slow cooked, hearty meal on a winter night. I tend to cook a lot on weekends, preparing for the week ahead, and I made this a while ago, then enjoyed it for several days after.

The recipe come from Nigel Slater , a British food writer I really enjoy. His cookbooks are very well written, as is his autobiography. His new book about growing and eating vegetables is on my wishlist.

Here's how it starts. How can a pan full of crisping bacon be a bad thing?

Then come the vegetables.

And here's the finished dish! My sausages weren't as appetizing as the ones in the orginal recipe (and in fact, look dangerously like overgrown worms), but they were good.

The final dish keeps and reheats well, and will fill you up after a day in the cold.

SAUSAGE AND LENTIL SUPPER (from The Guardian and Nigel Slater)

The parsley is crucial, as is a good meaty sausage. Serves 4.

2 tbsp olive oil
120g streaky bacon, diced
1 onion
1 large carrot
a rib of celery
300g green lentils
1 litre chicken stock
2 bay leaves
8 plump pork sausages
chopped parsley

Warm the oil in a deep, heavy casserole. Put the bacon in and let it cook over a medium heat so it colours lightly. Meanwhile, peel the onion, chop it finely and add to the bacon. Cut the carrot and celery into rough dice, and stir them in, letting them soften a little. Don't let them colour. Tip in the lentils, pour in the chicken stock, then tuck in the bay leaves and sausages, cut into short lengths if you prefer, and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat so the liquid simmers gently, season, then leave it for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time. Check the seasoning (I like it peppery), and stir in a handful of chopped parsley.