Roasted Ratatouille with chopped Cumberland Sausages & Spaghetti Recipe

Roasted Ratatouille with Chopped Cumberland Sausages & Spaghetti

You will need:

1 medium Aubergine

1 large Courgette

! Onion

3 Cloves of Garlic

4 or 5 Tomatoes

6 Cumberland Sausages (best quality)

1 - 2 tsp of Italian Herbs

A splash of Balsamic Vinegar

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 desert spoon of Sun Dried tomato paste

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 190C

Dice the aubergine and courgette (approx 2-3cm squares) and place in a roasting tin, glug over plenty of olive oil and toss well. Place in the oven to start to roast for about ten minutes. (If you prefer to salt your aubergine first this will work too but I find that the long roast of the aubergine makes this step unnecessary.)

While the aubergine/courgette is starting to roast slice your onion thinly, crush the garlic and after ten minutes add the sliced onion and crushed garlic to the roasting tray. Again toss well. Leave to roast for about 20 more minutes.

Put your sausages on to cook. I put them in the oven as well, seeing as its already on.

In the meantime chop the fresh tomatoes. After 20 minutes check to see how well the aubergine and courgette are cooking and if they are looking soft this is the time to add the fresh chopped tomatoes. They may need a few more minutes depending on the size of the aubergine and the heat of your oven, you don’t want to start the next phase if the aubergine is too hard or leave it too long so that the skin burns of the inside goes to mush.

Once you have added the fresh chopped tomatoes put the dish back in the oven for another ten minutes or so. Once the tomatoes start to soften its time to transfer the sauces to a heavy based saucepan. Add the tinned tomatoes, sun-dried tomato paste, Italian herbs, seasoning and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Simmer gently for another 20 minutes until it has all cooked into together. Keep the heat low so as not to destroy the aubergine completely.

Don’t forget to check how your sausages are doing. If they are cooked at this point. Slice them and add them to the sauce. All you have to do now is let it lightly simmer until it looks like the tomatoes have all cooked through and soaked into all those lovely vegetables.

Now is a good time to heat the water for the spaghetti. Once it has come to the boil, cook your spaghetti as per the packets instructions.

Serve your Roasted Ratatouille with Chopped Cumberland Sausages on the cooked spaghetti with freshly grated parmesan cheese, garlic bread and a nice side salad.

Let me know how you get on with this.

Swap the meat out for veggie sausages, or grated carrot or red pepper for a vegetarian meal. It’s also really nice with diced feta cheese stirred through for the last 20 minutes. And this makes a lovely topping for macaroni cheese.