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Grilled Sausages with Arrocina Beans, Garlic, and Sage

(recipe, José Pizarro)


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Introduction

For this dish it is really important to get meaty Continental-style fresh sausages. Those from Spain called butifarra blanca, or from southern France such as Toulouse, or Italy's salsicche, are 100 percent pure meat, flavored with spices, without any filler. The arrocina beans are small, sweet, and meaty dried beans. If you can't get hold of them, use dried haricot or cannellini beans.

Ingredients

  1. 11 oz. dried small white beans, such as arrocina, soaked overnight in cold water
  2. 1 medium onion, halved
  3. 4 cloves
  4. 4 bay leaves
  5. 1 head of garlic, halved, plus 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  6. 4 to 8 large fresh meaty pork sausages (butifarra if possible)
  7. 4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  8. 12 oz. vine-ripened tomatoes
  9. 12 large sage leaves, finely chopped
  10. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Steps

  1. Drain the beans, put them into a pan with 1 quart cold water, and bring them to a boil. Meanwhile, stud the onion halves with the cloves. Skim the scum from the surface of the beans, add the onion halves, bay leaves, and garlic bulb, reduce the heat, cover, and leave to simmer gently for 1 to 1½ hours, or until the beans are tender, adding 1 teaspoon salt 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Drain, remove and discard the onion, bay leaves, and garlic, and set aside.
  2. Heat a ridged or flat cast-iron griddle, or a heavy-based frying pan over high heat. Rub the sausages with a little of the oil, add them to the griddle or pan, reduce the heat to medium, and cook 8 to 10 minutes, turning them now and then, until they are golden brown and cooked through.
  3. Meanwhile, skin the tomatoes, quarter them, and scoop the seeds into a sieve set over a bowl. Rub through the juices with a wooden spoon, and cut the flesh into small pieces.
  4. Shortly before the sausages are ready, heat the remaining olive oil and the chopped garlic in a large frying pan over medium heat. As soon as the garlic is sizzling, add the sage and leave it to cook for a few seconds. Add the beans, and stir gently 3 to 4 minutes, until they have heated through. Stir in the tomatoes and their juices and cook gently for a further 2 to 3 minutes, so that the pieces of tomato retain their shape.
  5. Season generously to taste (beans need plenty of seasoning) with salt and pepper, and serve with the grilled sausages.