Seasonal local food recipe No.336 – Jamie’s sweet cherry tomato and sausage bake
My husband used our bag of tomatoes to make this delicious sausage dish from Jamie Oliver last night. He finely chopped the rosemary before cooking and cut the larger tomatoes into chunks. He served the finished dish with garlic bread.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes
Ingredients
2 kg ripe cherry tomatoes
2 sprigs each of fresh thyme, rosemary and bay
1 tbsp dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
12 good-quality Cumberland or coarse Italian pork sausages
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Get an appropriately sized roasting tray, large enough to take the tomatoes in one snug-fitting layer. Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages. Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
Toss together, then make sure the sausages are on top and pop the tray into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give it a shake and turn the sausages over. Put back into the oven for 15-30 minutes, depending on how golden and sticky you like your sausages.
Once it’s cooked, you’ll have an intense, tomatoey sauce. If it’s a little too thin, lift out the sausages and place the tray on the hob to cook it down to the consistency you like – I tend to make mine quite thick – then put the sausages back in.
Check the seasoning and serve either with a good-quality loaf of bread warmed through in a low oven for 10 minutes (great for mopping up the sauce!) or with mashed potato, rice or polenta, a green salad and a nice glass of wine.
