A touch of heat in a consoling casserole for a cold night.
Inspired by a recipe in the River Café Pocket Vegetable Book.
(Speak it softly but you could have a couple of sausages on the side–we did tonight!*)
I love
beans and especially white beans and I have a penchant for fennel, cooked or raw.
Garlic is a staple here–Lautrec’s pink garlic is grown under our feet–so to speak.
Adding tomatoes coalesces everything into a delicious dish.
for 2
1 tbs olive oil
2 fennel bulbs–outer bruised parts removed and cut in thickish vertical slices
3 garlic cloves–peeled and sliced
2 small dried chilis–chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds–pounded in a mortar
8oz tinned (canned) tomatoes–drained and chopped
8oz white beans tinned (canned)–drained
salt and pepper
juice of a lemon
1 tbs olive oil (a second!)
In a shallow pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil.
Add the fennel and cook for a couple of minutes, turning the fennel over in the oil.
Add the garlic, fennel seeds and chili and cook on for five minutes.
Add the tomatoes and mix them well in.
Add a tablespoon of water and mix again.
Check after five minutes to see if you need another tablespoon of water–I did.
Cover the pan and cook for fifteen minutes or until the fennel is tender.
Mix in the beans and season with salt and pepper.
Re-cover and cook for another ten minutes.
Add the lemon juice and the tablespoon of olive oil.
*The sausages–sshh!
Heat the oven to 190C (375 F)
Put the sausages in an oven pan with a splash of olive oil and sprigs of rosemary.
Cook for thirty minutes–shaking the pan occasionally.
Add a broken up bulb of garlic unpeeled.
Cook on for twenty minutes or longer to turn the sausages nicely brown.
Serve with Dijon mustard.
Robin Ellis 
oooohhhhhahhhh! I too love white beans and fennel. I went vegan a year ago but occasionally step out of the box. The sausage calls me in this recipe. I think this will be a new favorite.
You sound like me. I sneak in a bit of fish and chicken. But no red meat at all. I sure wish this pink garlic was available here in the USA. They just can’t seem to grow one that is strong enough for me. I put it
in almost everything I make. And I too, love beans.
Thanks, Robin! That dish looks delicious! Beans are so healthy, providing lots of protein and potassium, I cook beans the old fashioned way by boiling dried beans sold in little plastic sacks. I add a garlic clove. Then salt and pepper, after they’re tender, along with a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and a little sugar.. I have not tried canned beans.
Hi Robin
I love all sorts of beans and chickpeas! All my fav ingredients in your dish, white beans, lots of garlic, chili and tomatoes. I haven’t cooked fennel before, but will give this a try. I can make double the recipe and freeze some for week days dinner! Thanks for sharing!! 😊
Big fat sausages with beans & fennel; YUMMY mmm.. Sun Shining here on Isle of Wight, no snow. Hope all’s ok for you & Meredith. 🌹
🍀Shawdiane
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Merci Robin! I am gong to try this récipé soon! Ciao, Barbara Boling
Sent from my iPhone Barbara Boling
>
This sounds Super. Will try it very soon, Just did your salmon spinach recipe and it was beyond good. I got sushi grade salmon from farmers market which really made all the difference. Didn’t have any shallot at the market so used a new onion instead and it was wonderful. so simple and yet so good.
two silly questions:
– why tinned tomatoes and not fresh ? ease ?
– what kind of sausages did you use ? (aside: I love sausage and think it’s outrageous that I can’t find Italian sausage here in Paris !!!)
It’s winter Clark–I’m more likely to use fresh toms in season. Local sausages from our butcher. I agree the choice here in France is not as wide as in the UK for example.
thx, just as I thought…but there are always other possible answers 🙂
oooohhh! That’s why I do not want to be a vegetarian! Though I have to wait for this. I must recover from my gastric flu first. Clark Taylor is right. I agree with him: it is outrageous he cannot find Italian sausages in Paris!!!! We can find croissants all over Italy!!!! (Though I must confess I prefer the French/butter ones …)
Hope you get better soon, Paola.
Thank you Robin. Looking forward to stop drinking just tea and eating “fette biscottate” and go back to real eating…
What did you do with the unpeeled garlic you cooked with the sausages? This looks like a delicious dish.
I put it in the pan too early so the small cloves were overcooked but as I say in the recipe if you delay a bit it should be meltingly delicious when you squeeze it into your mouth!
oh yum !
As it happens, i have some Spare butchers sausages, and i was wondering what to do with them! Thanks for the inspiration Robin cheers
Cheers to you Maurice, up there in Scotland.
Congrats on a good exam!! Keep walking (loved the picture of your snowy stroll) and creating such wonderful healthy meals!! Barbara Boling
Sent from my iPhone Barbara Boling
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Robin Ellis > Date: February 11, 2015 at 11:51:47 AM CST > To: travelernana@gmail.com > Subject: [New post] Three words I always hope to hear in early February… > Reply-To: “Robin Ellis” > > >
Thanks, Barbara.
We have friends arriving this evening, so I shall be making this dish, I have bought some lovely Cumberland sausages from our butcher, so looking forward to sitting down this evening with a nice bottle of French red, good food, and good friends!
Hope it works well for you and your friends Beryl!
Bon appétit et Santé!
Thank you Robin, the meal went splendidly, and the wine too! Lovely recipe
Made this last night as main course for me (recipe for 2 is good for one guy), and had small amount of leftovers with some saucisses bought at today’s marché.
Deelish last night, better today.
And love the idea of cooking the saucisses with some rosemary but alas, forgot the garlic 😦
Which means that I’ll have to make this again, real soon!
Great, Clark–things usually better the next day.
Looks fabulous, and just crying out for a handful of black olives to be tossed in!
[…] was going to be a new Poldark. But back in February this year, Robin published a recipe for his fennel, tomato, and white bean casserole, and I thought, ‘Huzzah, I’ve found the first in the Great Bean Use-y Up Recipe […]
I love this casserole, thank you for sharing the recipe, Robin. Here’s my homage to your wonderful creation! http://www.yumsome.com/robin-ellis-fennel-and-bean-casserole-with-vegan-sausages/
Thank you Robin, this turned out really well for me.
I’m going to make this tonight. Thank you for sharing Robin. 🙂
It is a healthy recipe and I will try tonight.