Tried & Chewed: Cassoulet-Style Sausage ‘N’ Beans

OMD! Tonight for supper I made Rodney and I the Cassoulet-Style Sausage ‘N’ Beans recipe from the French in a Flash column on the Serious Eats website*. It was so freakin’ good that I wish I could spout more than “Je ne parle pas français” from my college French, for I would write a long dribbling love poem in French about it if I could!

Now normally I would not give the label “Tried & Chewed” to a recipe that I have only made once, but this meal was so fabulous that it is going directly to our “Tried & Chewed” folder. Actually, both Rodney and I loved it so much that we have started to contemplate ways to make it even better. So far the ideas we have come up with are: cooking the beans from scratch, canning our own tomatoes and starting a pot of thyme indoors so that we can use fresh thyme next time.

Obsessed? No, I do not think we are obsessed…why do you ask? 

Trust me if I could just send you a bit of the smell you would be won over instantly, and you would be plotting tomato beds too,  but all I can do is give you some pictures. Please do not hold them against this recipe! 

I know that the dish looks a bit muddy, but that is because I used 

red instead of white wine. (I just could not bring myself to buy a 

whole bottle of wine to use 1/3 of a cup when I had red on hand.)

Other than the swapping red for white wine I followed the recipe exactly (well I did use home canned tomatoes too) but I followed it closely enough that it is not an adaptation, so you should wander over to one of the links I have provided for the recipe.

I now want to make a real cassoulet. If this is just something in the “style” of one, the real thing will probably put me in a coma!

*You will also find this recipe on the French Revolution blog run by Kerry Saretsky. She is the author of the French in a Flash column on Serious Eats.