Sausage and Tomato Bake

This really is the easiest winter dish ever using humble sausages and tomatoes. It is also super cheap to make but packs a lot of flavour – it doesn’t get any better than that! To make it a balanced and healthy meal just serve with a fresh salad and some bread, and I reckon your family will be very happy with this meal.

Ingredients

1 kg of tomatoes (approximately), sliced into quarters
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
8 thick sausages
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Get a large roasting tray, big enough for the tomatoes to fit in one layer. Put all the tomatoes in, and add the thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and oregano. Sprinkle in the garlic, and add the sausages. Drizzle some olive oil and balsamic vinegar – approximately 1 tablespoon of each – over everything, and season with salt and pepper. Put in the oven and cook for half an hour.

Take the tray out and turn the sausages over. Cook for between 15 and 30 minutes, until the sausages are cooked through. Remove the sausages, as well as the rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves. Now use a potato masher to squish the tomatoes which will make a delicious sauce.

To Serve

Serve the sausages with the tomato sauce over the top, along with whatever you like – we enjoy it with some crusty sourdough bread and salad, but you could have mashed potato and vegetables, or polenta and salad if you prefer.

Leftover Sauce

If you have leftover tomato sauce, it’s great to pop into the fridge and use for another recipe. We use our extra as a pizza sauce, but it would be lovely for a pasta sauce, or just to add instead of tomato or BBQ sauce for almost any recipe. You could even have a cheese and tomato sauce sandwich for lunch to use it up! It should keep for 3 to 5 days in the fridge without any problems.

Enjoy

This recipe uses beef sausage but of course feel free to try different styles of sausages and and tomatoes to suit your taste. Lastly, don’t be fooled by how easy this recipe is, as the flavours are really lovely. I’m sure this will be a regular fixture throughout winter in our household!