Roasted Italian sausages with borlotti beans and ’nduja sauce

What nicer place is there to shop than an Italian deli and in Theo Randall's inspiring book The Italian Deli Cookbook you can find out what to do with all those tempting ingredients you find there.

Here is his recipe for roasted Italian sausages with borlotti beans and nduja, a spicy Calabrian sausage. Sausages with sausage sauce - what's not to like?!

Theo writes: "Dried borlotti beans from the protected area of Lamon, in the Veneto, are the finest dried borlottis available. You don’t have to use these specifically, of course, but if you are lucky enough to come across a packet, you are in for a treat. Combined with lovely, flavoursome sausage and the spiciness of ’nduja, they are heavenly."

Serves 2

250g (9oz) dried borlotti beans, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water

2 garlic cloves, 1 whole, 1 finely sliced

1 plum tomato

2–3 sage leaves

3 tbsp olive oil

4 Italian sausages

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

1 red onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

100ml (3½fl oz) red wine

400g (14oz) tomato passata

75g (2½oz) skinned ’nduja

2 tbsp mascarpone

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

200g (7oz) purple-sprouting, calabrese or longstem broccoli, cooked and seasoned with olive oil and sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to serve

Drain the soaked beans and rinse under cold, running water for a couple of minutes. Place the rinsed beans in a large saucepan and pour in cold water so that the water comes 10cm (4in) above the level of the beans.

Add the whole clove of garlic, along with the plum tomato and sage leaves. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook gently for 40 minutes, skimming off the foam from time to time, until the beans are soft enough to crush to a mash with your thumb. Drain the beans, reserving the cooking water. Remove the tomato, sage and garlic and place them in a bowl. Using a hand-held stick blender and a little of the bean cooking water, blend to a smooth paste. Add the paste back to the beans and check the seasoning. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/315°F/Gas Mark 2–3.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan on a medium heat. When hot, add the sausages and cook for 5 minutes, turning frequently, until brown all over. Remove them from the pan and set aside, leaving the sausage fat and olive oil in the pan.

Add the celery, sliced garlic, onion and carrots to the pan and cook gently for 5 minutes, until the onion has softened. Add the red wine and cook for a further 2 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half. Add the passata, cook gently for a couple of minutes, then add the ’nduja and stir well.

Place the sausages on top of the passata mixture and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, until the sausages are cooked through. Remove from the oven, dollop over the mascarpone and check the seasoning.

Warm the cooked borlotti beans and stir through the remaining olive oil.

Place on the table for each person to help themselves, with some steaming hot purple sprouting broccoli served alongside.

What to drink: Theo says "make sure you have a good bottle of Chianti,or other super-Tuscan red wine to drink alongside – it’s essential." Who am I to disagree although I wold argue that barbera would work with this hearty dish too.

Extracted from The Italian Deli Cookbook by Theo Randall (Quadrille, £26) Photography: Lizzie Mayson

Chipotle-spiced black bean soup

Pulse-based soups like this black bean soup are super-comforting and warming in chilly weather. I rustled it up to use a batch of black beans my neighbour Jenny Chandler had given me and wouldn’t claim for a moment it's authentic but it is good!

(Jenny has written an excellent book on pulses called, appropriately enough, Pulse and is known to us locally as the 'bean queen'!)

Serves 4

3 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1 chipotle pepper en adobo, chopped or 2 tsp chipotle paste

1 tsp sweet pimenton

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

2 x 400g cans black beans, drained and rinsed or, better still, 450-500g cooked black beans

750ml vegetable stock

For the topping

corn tortilla strips or chips

1-2 avocados

A small bunch of coriander

A small carton of sour cream

1-2 limes, quartered

Heat the oil in a casserole or heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry the onions, for 10 minutes. Add the crushed garlic, cook for a minute then stir in the chopped chipotle or chipotle paste, pimenton and cumin, Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, beans and 500ml stock bring up to boiling point and simmer for about 20 mins.

Remove half the beans and whizz in a blender (or use a hand-held blender to blitz the remaining soup in the pan - the idea being to retain some texture in the soup). Return the purée to the pan, heat through and adjust the seasoning.

Assemble the topping ingredients. Pour a shallow layer of vegetable oil into a frying pan and fry the tortilla strips for a minute or so until puffed up and crisp. Chop the avocado into chunks. Chop the coriander. Serve the soup with some crisp tortilla strips, sour cream, avocado a squeeze of lime and scatter some chopped coriander on top.

What to drink: I’d probably go for a beer - either a lager or a negro modelo with this but a robust red like a malbec or even a young rioja would work well too.

For other pairings with bean-based dishes see The Best Wine Pairings with Beans

Creamy cannellini and fennel pasta

A clever little recipe from Jack Monroe's brilliant new book Cooking on a Bootstrap which would be perfect for a shared student house or anyone on a tight budget.

Jack - a celebrated anti-poverty campaigner has first hand experience of living on the breadline but she also has the ingenuity to create delicious food out of simple, cheap ingredients - this one is particularly impressive as it makes a creamy carbonara-style sauce out of a can of cannellini beans.

Jack writes: This pasta dish is packed with protein, but also a very good healthy substitute for cream-packed pasta dishes. As with all bean-based dishes, they benefit from a long, slow cook, so the more time you have to give this, the better the results.

Creamy cannellini and fennel pasta

Serves 3-4

1 large onion (about 200g), finely sliced

2–4 fat garlic cloves (depending on how much of a fan you are), minced or finely chopped

2 tbsp oil

a pinch of salt

¼ tsp fennel seeds

1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (240g drained weight)

2 tbsp lemon juice

a few sprigs of parsley or herb of your choice, to finish

cooked pasta of your choice, to serve (I'd suggest about 300g dried weight)

1 Pop the onion and garlic into a large saucepan with the oil. Bring to gentle heat, add a pinch of salt and the fennel seeds and stir lovingly. There’s a lot of love going into this dish along the way, it’s got the subtle soothing nature of a risotto, so clear the decks and use it as a de-stresser while you stand and stir.

2 Toss the cannellini beans into the pan, squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and cook on low heat for 10 minutes to soften the onions.

3 Add 200ml cold water, then turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stir, and leave to cook for another 10 minutes. The cannellinis should start to break down and self-purée, thickening the sauce. Stir well and gradually add another 200ml water (you might not need all of it) until most of the beans have broken down and you’re left with a soft, creamy, sweet, garlicky, comforting gorgeous sauce. Stir through the herbs.

4 Stir through your pasta, or allow to cool, spoon into jars or other containers, label and pop in the fridge until dinner time.

TIP

• Fennel seeds are not essential if they aren’t the sort of thing you have lying around but I’m a Big Fan of them – as a store-cupboard spice, a couple of little fennel seeds go a long, long way.

What to drink: Keeping to the budget theme get in the habit of replacing white wine with dry cider. Much cheaper and better than most cheap whites on the market.

Extracted from Cooking on a Bootstrap by Jack Monroe published by Bluebird Books at £15.99. You can get 40% off this price if you order it through her blog and/or order one for a foodbank (again with a 40% discount) by entering the code FBNK2808 on this site.