Sausage Casserole - Spanish Stylie

I was speaking to a friend the other day.  They had 12 people over for dinner and requested some possible easy-cook recipes.  I mentioned the possibility of sausage casserole and the response I got was, "oh I don't want to be cheap".  For me, a sausage casserole is the pinnacle of pork decadence.

There are, of course, many ways to enjoy the succulence of a decent banger.  Simply fried in the pan, or under the grill is a splendid way of encouraging them to yield their unctuous fatty rewards.  Slow-cooking them after you have briefly grilled them though leads to a teasingly friable digit that can be eaten with the blunt edge of a spoon.

I have tinkered with this recipe and used various methods and ingredients.  Indeed you can pretty much use this recipe as a conduit to get rid of things languishing in the back of the fridge.  Fennel works especially well in this - its haunting aniseed flavour pleasingly combining with the coarse grain of the salty sausage.  I have used stocks (chicken and vegetable) and wine to intensify the main gravy, but you can simply top it up with water too - it works fine.

One thing that I definitely insist on though (for that Spanish kick) is some punchy smoked paprika.  Dulce (sweet) or the fiery version of this pimenton work, but I prefer the hotter one personally.

We have had mixed results in our herb garden.  We simply cannot curtail the rosemary bush, and our thyme equally excels.  Flat leaf parsley, coriander and basil though, seem to dislike the distant reaches of suburbia and will not thrive.  Freshly picked thyme works wonders in this casserole - you don't even need to shred the leaves.  A few twiggy branches of the heady stuff will catalyze the flavours perfectly.

Here's a bare bones recipe (you can tailor it to your own design) - I will post a picture of the finished product this evening:

• Fry the sausages (decent butchers ones) in a thick-bottomed pan until they are nicely browned.  Remove them.
• One large or 2 medium onions chopped.  Add them into the pan with some olive oil.
• Garlic.  Lots of it.  5 or 6 cloves, roughly chopped.  In it goes.
• Add whatever you like now - some fennel, peppers or potatoes.  It works equally well just with garlic and onions though.  Fry them off to soften - just.
• Preheat oven to 140 Celcius.
• Add a tin of plum tomatoes.  Season.  
• Add some fresh thyme.  Sticks attached if you are lazy.
• 3/4 tsp of smoked paprika.
• You can add some red wine if you like, though this is not necessary.  It does intensify the gravy though.  If you don't add wine then add a big glass of water (about 500ml).
• Stick a lid on.  Put it into the oven.  Cook for 1.5-2hrs.

Eat it served with a nice cheeky Spanish.  And by that I mean a decent temperanillo or garnacha, not someone called Miguel who has an annoying habit of poking you.