We People don’t prepare dinner almost sufficient sausage bakes. In Britain, these superb one-pan meals of greens topped with browned sausages are commonplace weeknight fare — simple to throw collectively, endlessly variable and as cozy and warming as supper must be.
Right here, in the USA, we usually tend to roast a rooster over those self same greens, however that takes twice as lengthy. As for sausages, frying or broiling is our go-to, however whereas they get the job achieved shortly, they received’t provide you with a full dinner.
This recipe embraces the British mannequin, baking greens and sausages collectively for a easy but satisfying winter meal.
I begin with halved potatoes and wedges of crimson cabbage seasoned with sturdy branches of rosemary and thyme and frivolously crushed caraway and coriander seeds. Subsequent, there’s a blanket of thinly sliced onions to melt, brown and virtually soften into the greens beneath it, adopted by a beneficiant coating of grated Parmesan for complexity and richness. Lastly, there’s the crowning layer of sausages, which flip crisp and coppery on prime however keep juicy and tender beneath.
Though it’s not broadly achieved in Britain, I halve the sausages lengthwise and brush them with mustard earlier than nestling them into the potatoes and cabbage. The reduce floor permits the pork juices and fats to render out freely, seasoning all of the greens beneath like an prompt sauce.
My traditional intuition for getting ready this sort of dinner is to tug out a rimmed sheet pan, however on this case, a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or a small roasting pan is a wiser alternative. A smaller pan brings all of the substances nearer, so the sausage juices can higher mingle with the substances. The elevated depth can be an asset, permitting for some steaming, which helps prepare dinner the sturdy potatoes and cabbage. You probably have a metallic pan, you’ll get the utmost quantity of browning on the potatoes. However I’ve additionally made this in a ceramic dish, and there have been nonetheless golden spots.
You may make this with any form of meaty sausages: spicy turkey or lamb, rooster or duck, basic pork bratwurst, chorizo or sizzling Italian hyperlinks. For a dish as unfussy as a sausage bake, utilizing what you’ve obtained is a part of the attraction.