Boiled bacon and pork sausage If you’re the type that really needs the names of your dishes to appear exotic, comprising superlatives with vivid descriptions, rather than something straight and honest where you depend on quality of the ingredients, then this dish may not be for you, and you may not choose it from our menu. However, if you love good food and have the confidence to let the ingredients do the talking, this is really worth it.

Because it’s so simple, it really is important to get good bacon and sausage. Go to a good butcher and pay for the best. The bacon loin needs to be in a chunk rather than sliced and there’s no need to get highly spiced or flavoured sausages - just the best quality pork sausage. But why would you want anything else?

Although it doesn’t effect the taste, some people like the sausage to have some colour rather than staying pink. And if that’s you, heat a grill or frying pan and brown the sausages for a few minutes first. Otherwise, just poach them in the liquor as in the recipe.

You’ll notice there’s no salt in the ingredients list and it’s unlikely you’ll need it as the bacon is fairly salty in the first place and this flavours the resulting liquor. However, it’s always important to taste and season if necessary.

INGREDIENTS
Serves two

350g bacon loin in one piece
A bay leaf
A sprig of fresh thyme
One onion – peeled and finely sliced
Three carrots – peeled and cut into chunks
¼ swede – peeled and cut into chunks
Four good quality pork sausages
Freshly-ground black pepper
A handful of fresh parsley – chopped

METHOD

Place the bacon loin in a large pan, add the bay leaf and thyme and add enough cold water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer for two hours, skimming the surface if any scum appears and topping up the water if it falls below the top of the meat. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and put to one side.

Add the sliced onion and chopped carrot and swede to the liquor and simmer for ten minutes before adding the sausages with a little black pepper and simmering for a further 10 to 15 minutes – depending on whether you’ve part-cooked the sausages first to brown them.

To serve, roughly slice the bacon and add to the liquor to reheat and then add the chopped parsley.