Pork Belly and Sausage Cassoulet

In the meantime, you can get on with chopping all the veggies! Peel the carrots, chop off the ends, cut it in half along its length, repeat to form four long strips, then slice at ½cm intervals to create quarter moons. Chop the top and bottom ends off the onion, cut in half and peel, then thinly slice. Peel and finely chop the garlic (if you have a garlic press you can use this!). Pick the thyme leaves. Finally, cut the tough end off the bottom of the spring greens and roughly chop into 2-3cm chunks.

Slice the pork belly rashers lengthways into 1cm strips, called ‘lardons’. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large ovenproof dish and cook the lardons over medium-high heat until crisp and golden. This should take about 10 mins.

Now add the carrot and onion to the dish and reduce the heat to medium. Once the veggies have softened (about 8 mins), you can add the garlic,thyme leaves,herbes de provence, a good pinch of salt and grind of black pepper. Mix together and cook for a further 2 mins.

Drain and rinse all the beans and add them to the dish, together with 250ml of boiling water, the chicken stock pot and chopped tomatoes.Bring to the boil, stirring well. Simmer for 15 mins until some of the liquid reduces. Tip: If you have some red wine sitting you might like to add a good splash of this too!

While the bean cassoulet is bubbling away you can prepare the herb crumb topping. Pick the leaves from the parsley and finely chop them. LH :In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, 2 tbsp olive oil, a good pinch of salt and grind a of pepper. Set aside.

Carefully add your cooked sausages to the bean cassoulet, combine and top with the herb crumb topping. Place under the grill for 3 mins or until the topping is deliciously golden.