Italian Sausage with Rosemary Potatoes

I saw this recipe on tv recently, and as my saliva already started dripping from the corners of my mouth during the show itself, I couldn't resist preparing this dish myself. So tonight was the night to try it, and even though I felt quite lazy, I found this recipe to be a breeze; 20 minutes of preparation and then (about) 40 minutes of relaxing while the food was cooking in the oven. Serve with a fresh green salad.

What do you need?

As stated above, this is a pretty simple recipe, for which you'll need the following:

5 or 6 midsized potatoes
2 italian sausages or any other type of sausage with herbs (make sure they're thick enough, otherwise they will dry out during the cooking process in the oven)

Olive oil
4 or 5 whole cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
coarsely ground salt / seasalt
black pepper
6 sprigs of freshly cut rosemary


This should serve two, although I was hungry as a horse and ate the entire thing myself...

In the pictures, you'll see chili powder and large breadcrumbs. The original recipe called for these ingredients, however, I have found the dish to be better when leaving these ingredients out.

Preparation:

1. Peel the potatoes, or you could even clean your potatoes thoroughly and cook them with the skin still on. This will give them a delicious crunchiness on the outside!

2. Put olive oil in the tray in which you're going to cook the dish. Just a drizzle, so that there's some on the bottom of the tray.

3. Slice your potatoes into slices of about 0.5 cm thick. You don't want to make them any thicker than this as you'll end up with potatoes which are still somewhat raw in the middle...
Once you've sliced them, put them in the tray.

4. Cut your sausages into pieces of about 6-8 cm long, and preferably cut them in the same way you cut your potatoes, to attain a certain similarity of shape. Place them in the tray with the potatoes.

5. Add the unpeeled cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary.

6. Add the coarsely ground salt, black pepper to the whole.

7. Pour good quality olive oil all over the contents of the tray, to add some moistness to the dish and to ensure proper baking when placed in the oven. Not too much, as the sausages will also release their fat and moisture. Once you've added the oil, just mix it all around. Use your hands. Get dirty.

8. Place in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes at 180-185° C.


9. Invite a friend, open up a nice bottle of wine or a fresh beer and enjoy!

A table!!