We are deep into autumn now and I found Rachel Roddy’s take on sausages and mash to be really satisfying in one of those crisp cold evenings. I wasn’t sure about the combination of grapes in this sausage stew but they really worked quite well, adding a bit more sweetness to the caramelised onions. This dish is perfect served over mash (think posh sausages & mash) and/or with crusty bread, like Rachel suggests. This recipe is from Rachel’s column in The Guardian’s Feast magazine. I have adapted it slightly reducing the amount of onions and grapes.
More in comfort food: Cheeseboard Mac & Cheese | Chicken, olive and caper ragu | Tagliatelle with roast ‘nduja and tomato sauce
Rachel Roddy’s Sausages with red onions and grapes
Serves 2-3 | Prep 10 mins | Cook 30 mins
Easy | Gluten Free (if you can find GF sausages)
You’ll need:
- Olive oil;
- 6 good quality pork sausages;
- 150ml white wine;
- 2 small red onions (or 1 large), peeled and sliced;
- 1 small red chilli (fresh or dried);
- 200g mix of red and green grapes, cut in half;
- Salt
In a large frying pan, warm a little olive oil and brown the sausages on all sides. Pour over the wine, cover and cook for 15 minutes, or until the sausages are cooked through. If the pan looks too dry at any point, add a little more wine. By the end of cooking, there should be just a little thick, glossy sauce.
Lift the sausages from the pan and pour/scrape the sauce into a cup: set aside and keep warm.
Add four tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and fry the onion and chilli with a pinch of salt until the onion is soft and lightly golden. Add the grapes and a pinch of salt, increase the heat, and cook at a lively pace for five minutes, stirring often, until the grapes start to soften and wrinkle.
Add the sausages back to the pan along with a spoonful or two of sauce, cook for a minute more, then serve, making sure everyone gets enough of the grapes and soft, sticky sauce.
Original recipe from Rachel Roddy, available online here.
This looks and sounds really delicious. I’ve had a lifelong aversion to putting grapes in meat dishes, or indeed any fruit with meat. It’s just a prejudice that I have. Chicken salad with grapes particularly aggravates me. 😁 Having said that, I made quail with grapes for a blog post earlier this year and that came out delicious. Once the grapes are cooked, I think they change flavor and they really do add to the dish. I think I may have to give this a try and continue questioning my prejudice against grapes with meat. Wonderful post and thank you for sharing.
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Thank you! I’m the same actually, or have been for a while. Even sultanas in a tagine sounded unappealing to me for a looong time. However, as I’m experimenting with different flavours, I do enjoy playing around with fruit and seeing how it goes. Can’t say it’s always a winning combination, but in this case it worked. I originally used the amount of grapes as per recipe and found that to be a bit too much for me, so above I’ve halved the original amount. Might work better for people like me and you! 🙂
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