Tomato fennel sausage stew

A hearty, meaty stew made perfect with a drizzle of black truffle oil.

|
The Restless Palate
With a base of tomatoes, sausage, and fennel this stew can be easily adapted to fit your tastes, or use what's in your cupboard.

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with a family that raises Berkshire pork. The kobo beef of pigs! Get in my belly! What a score.

With some convincing I was able to get my hands on enough meat to last me through the year. Moving to a new city means finding all new sources of sustainably raises animals, a community support agriculture (CSA) share, farm fresh eggs, and local dairy. It’s been a process, to say the least, but getting access to Berkshire pork far exceeded my expectations of finding quality local products. It’s like I won the jackpot and it’s living in my freezer.

Being asked for feedback on the sausages prompted me to get into the kitchen and that’s how this stew was born.

I feel a warning is in order. I can guarantee that your stew will end up tasting different from mine no matter how closely you follow the recipe. The flavor of your sausages will undoubtedly be different. Your tomatoes might be a different variety, grown in a different climate or maybe they came from a can. Your fennel bulbs might be larger, your garlic more potent. In the end, none of that will matter because this is one of those foolproof recipes.

I’ve included the variations I’ve made in the past that have been successful, but feel free to play around. This stew can handle it!

My favorite addition to date is a drizzle of black truffle oil. If you want to serve last night’s stew to some special guests, this is the way to go. Garnish with fennel fronds and feta, crumbled goat cheese or Parmesan petals. The color contrast adds visual interest and layers of flavors. I love that this stew is so pliable.

Tomato fennel sausage stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups of roasted tomatoes or 2 756 ml (or 2 28-ounce) cans of whole tomatoes
1 cup of chicken stock
1 can tomato paste (156ml) (or 1 6-ounce can)
2 fennel bulbs, core removed and sliced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
3 tablespoons of honey (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon Hungarian or Spanish paprika (sweet or bitter)
6-8 sausages (approximately 2 lbs.)
Chopped fennel fronds to garnish
Drizzle with black truffle oil (optional)
Additional toppings: cheese such as feta, goat cheese or Parmesan.

1. Preheat pven to 350 degrees F. In a cast iron pan or oven proof pan, brown the sausages on all sides. Place the sausages in the oven and cook until no pink remains and their juices run clear. Depending on the thickness of the sausages, this will take 20-25 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven, cook onions with olive oil over medium heat until they begin to soften, approximately 5 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients except the sausages and stir to combine. Simmer for 25 minutes or until fennel becomes tender.

3. Once the sausages are cooked, add all the juices and fat from the cooked sausages into the stew and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more honey if the stew is too acidic (depends on your tastes and the tomatoes).4. Serve stew with slices of sausage and top with your favorite garnishes.

Related post on The Restless Palate: Italian White Bean Sausage and Kale Stew

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to  Tomato fennel sausage stew
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2015/1203/Tomato-fennel-sausage-stew
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe