Sausage and Charred Citrus Traybake (4)

Sausages in an aromatic sweet and sour sauce from ” Mezcla” by Ixta Belfrage. If you like you could add some tinned or jarred beans to make this a more substantial dish, or serve with grilled bread to mop up the juices. Tuscan or Sicilian fennel and chilli sausages are good in this if you can find them, but if not any good quality and quite fatty sausages will do nicely.

Sausages with Parmesan Polenta (4)

I recently visited the north of Italy where i returned to the same restaurant in Stresa on Lake Maggiore three times . Their seasonal special, home made sausages with chestnuts and polenta, was so tasty I had it twice. I haven’t been able to find a recipe for that dish, but this dish from ” Rick Stein’s Food Heroes” is a good second best. If you cannot get hold of Luganega sausages in your local Italian deli then any Italian sausages flavoured with garlic and fennel will do.

Cavolo Nero Polenta Soup (4)

This is the first recipe i cooked from Claire Thomson’s eagerly awaited ” Home Cookery Year” which came out earlier this month. The book is divided into seasons so i am busy working my way through autumn recipes . Watch this space for a few more….

Peter’s Lamb Curry (8)

This is from Jamie Oliver’s ” The Return of the Naked Chef”. He credits the recipe to his friend Peter Begg. You can vary the curry by using diced chicken, prawns or paneer or vegetables like swiss chard, spinach, peas, cauliflower, boiled potatoes or chickpeas. Serve with some Indian breads and/ or steamed basmati rice.