Sausage and Lentil Simmer

This morning, we were met by the first round of flurries to hit Toronto this winter. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I was going to want dinner to be something warming.

Inspired by the picture on the cover of Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries (one of my all time favourite cookbooks - the man clearly has a love affair going on with food), I decided the theme of tonight's dinner was going to be sausages.

More specifically, these gorgeous farmer's sausages from St. Lawrence Market.

You can't see it, but the sausages are all linked together!

This is a haphazard affair; a rustic dinner perfect for those cozy nights in with a bottle of red wine.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
some sausages (really, as many as you want - I used 2 sets of 6 small links)
 ½ large onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup dried brown lentils
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
pepper to taste.

Directions

Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Brown sausages on all sides. It's not important to cook them through, as they'll do that in the process of cooking the lentils. Remove sausages from pan.

My first batch of sausages I forgot to add the oil. Big mistake. The casing split.

Sauté onion and garlic until tender. Add lentils, tomatoes (with their juices), water and bay leaves to the pan and bring to a boil. Nestle sausages into the pot, cover and reduce heat. Let simmer on low for 45 minutes - an hour until lentils are tender.

Ready to be served.

Season with freshly ground pepper. You shouldn't need salt with all those sausages!

And there you have it, an easy, comforting weekend meal. I recommend it for your next apres-ski!