Baked Toulouse Sausages in a Red Wine and Dijon Mustard Sauce

Serves 4-6:

• 8-10 Toulouse sausages (or Cumberland for example), at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2-3 shallots or 1 onion, thinly sliced in half-moons
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
• about 200 ml of full bodied red wine
• 3 teaspoons of Dijon mustard (or more if you like)
• about 5 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
• salt
• pepper
• fresh parsley to garnish

Heat up the olive oil in a large saucepan.

Prick every sausage a few times with a sharp knife and fry on both sides for 3-4 minutes or until golden.

Take the sausages out the pan and keep warm.

Add the sliced onions into the pan (more olive oil or butter if needed), season with some salt and fry gently until they turn soft. Next add the garlic and fry everything for a further 5 minutes.

Now pour in the wine and wait until it has reduced by half.

Stir in the Dijon mustard, add the thyme leaves and season the sauce with some salt and pepper.

Put the sausages back into the pan and arrange them neatly tossing in the wine sauce.

Bake the dish (without the lid) in the preheated oven to 200 C (180 C Fan) for about 30 minutes, turning the sausages every 10 minutes. By then the sausages should be cooked through and develop a very appetising dark crispy skin.

Take the dish out the oven. If the sauce is too watery, take the sausage out of the saucepan and simmer the sauce until you obtain the desired consistency. Put the sausages back into the pan, reheat and garnish with some parsley.

Serve with roast potatoes or a potato puree, accompanied by a crunchy lettuce or chicory salad.