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November 03, 2006

Lentils with Red Wine and Sausage

One of the things I love about food blogs is the way it lets you see variations on an idea or recipe. Bloggers will pick up ideas from each other, or just from the general culinary zeitgeist, and run with them. It's fun to see all the variations.

The other day, I came across this post from the wonderful food blog I'm Mad and I Eat, describing a delicious-looking lentil and sausage dish inspired by this even more delicious-looking lentil and sausage dish from Becks and Posh.

So, I made my own version for dinner tonight. I followed Sam's recipe from Becks and Posh relatively closely, except that I couldn't find any Toulouse sausages. I used Whole Foods' lemon, thyme, and herb sausages. These worked fine, but next time I'll go for something with a more smoky/garlicky taste. I also substituted canned diced tomatoes for fresh, because that was what I had on hand, and threw some thyme into the lentils because it was already in the sausages.

This was really good. (Quoth Mr. Spaceling, "Can we have this again? Please?") The wine, tomatoes, bacon, and chicken stock combine to make a nice smoky rich-tasting sauce for the lentils. It's a perfect fall meal. Read on for the recipe.

The Ingredients

  • 1-2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 3 medium-sized carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup French green lentils, picked over
  • 2 bay leaves
  • dried thyme, to taste
  • 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, with juices
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1.5 cups red wine (I used a Castello Di Gabbiano Chianti)
  • 1 lb. pork sausages (I used Whole Foods lemon, thyme, and herb sausages. Toulouse sausages would be faithful to the original recipe.)
  • 4 slices thick cut bacon, cut into small pieces

The Steps

  1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and saute until soft.
  2. Add lentils and cook for a minute or two, stirring to coat with the oil.
  3. Add bay leaves, thyme, tomatoes, stock, and wine. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer covered for about 45 minutes.
  4. A bit before the 45 minutes are up, cook the bacon in a skillet until it is lightly browned. Add the bacon and the fat that has rendered from it to the pot of lentils.
  5. Cook the sausages in the skillet until they are browned. Cut them up into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot.
  6. Simmer everything together for an additional 15 minutes or so.

Serve with a green salad and the rest of the bottle of red wine. Makes a bunch of servings.

Posted by spaceling at November 3, 2006 10:37 PM

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