THIS is like an old fashioned jambalaya – a mixture of rice, vegetables and meat, a bit like risotto but without the need for stirring.

Sausages are cheap but packed with flavour, and taking them out of the casing first flavours the rice beautifully. You can use any sausage you want – chorizo, merguez, pork or beef, depending on how spicy you want it.

INGREDIENTS

Olive oil, for frying
1 red onion, peeled and sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
5 spiced sausages, e.g. Italian chilli
1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
200g long-grain rice
1 /2 glass white wine
500ml chicken stock
4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
1 tomato, chopped 
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

ADD a glug of oil to a heavy-based casserole dish and fry the onion for five minutes until soft but not coloured. 

Add the pepper and garlic and cook for two minutes. Slit the sausage skins and crumble the sausage meat into the pan, then cook over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until coloured. Add the smoked paprika and mix. Season to taste.

Add the rice and stir well to mix thoroughly and absorb the flavour. Deglaze the pan by pouring in the white wine and scraping any bits stuck to the bottom. Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cook gently for 15-20 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid almost entirely absorbed.

Remove from the heat, gently fold in the spring onions, tomato and parsley and serve.

HOW TO FRY ONIONS

If frying onion, don’t slice it too thinly or it will burn before it has had a chance to caramelise. Never rush cooking an onion. Always give it 5 or 6 minutes in the pan on its own.

  • Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course is published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £25. The accompanying series starts on Channel 4 on Monday, 5pm