Authentic Italian Sausage and Lentils Recipe: Hearty and Flavorful Dish
Lentils have been a staple food in the Italian diet for millennia, dating all the way back to 13,000 BC, and many different variations for cooking it have popped up along the way. Through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, this recipe has always stuck around and has even become a New Years Eve tradition symbolic for good luck and wealth in the upcoming year! You can find this dish in varied forms throughout many different regions of Italy with all kinds of added vegetables and various types of lentils.
Not only is the prep work and cooking pretty simple, but the reward is a hearty and aromatic delicious dish that everyone will love!
Sausage and Lentils
Servings: people
Ingredients
- 4 Italian sausages
- 10 oz lentils (cleaned)
- 1/4 cup red wine (a dry sparkling red would work best for this but any kind does the job)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 sprigs thyme (if using dried herbs, use about 3/4 teaspoon)
- 1 whole bay leaf
- 1 large carrot
- 3 sticks celery
- 2 small shallots
- 3 cloves garlic (if using bottled minced garlic, about 3-4 teaspoons)
- 4 sprigs parsley (if using dried herbs, use about 1 teaspoon)
- salt and pepper (add to taste)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Next, clean and peel the celery, carrots and shallots and cut them up into ¼-inch dices. Separate and set aside.
- Peel the garlic and mince it finely then set aside.
- Fill a saucepan with water and a handful of salt and let it simmer. Once it starts bubbling up, add the lentils, thyme, and bay leaf. Let it all simmer together until the lentils are soft, then drain and set aside.
- In a large nonstick pan, heat half of the olive oil on a medium high heat. Add the sausages and sear until they are browned on all sides, around 5 minutes or so (don’t worry, they don’t need to be fully cooked, just crispy on the outside). Once browned, set aside.
- Add remaining olive oil to the pan and add the shallots, garlic, carrots, and celery until almost tender.
- Then, add the lentils and red wine and stir together. Lay the sausages on top and place in the pre-heated oven until the sausages are thoroughly cooked, about 160 degree internal temperature or about 12 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, let it cool a little, taste and season with pepper and salt. Serve and garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
- Enjoy!
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Absolutely loved the flavors in this dish, the sausage and lentils paired really well together. The recipe was relatively easy to follow but dicing up all the veggies took longer than I thought it would. A solid four stars!
The flavor profile of this dish was truly divine. The humble lentils and robust Italian sausages in combination with the earthy red wine and herb mix created a comforting yet luxurious dish. It’s a brilliant blend of textures and flavors that I can’t get enough of!
This recipe is a great weeknight dinner option. The sausages were perfectly cooked and the lentils were nicely seasoned. Just took off one star because it needed a little more salt and pepper than the recipe suggested. But overall, a solid recipe!
So first, I don’t even like lentils but this is delicious. Second! found out that lentils might actually be one of the oldest known farmed crops. I saw the 13,000 BCE in the recipe description and was skeptical but we’ve apparently found lentil evidence dating back to 11,000 to 13,000 BCE which is right around the start of the first agricultural revolution. I thought that was mostly focused around Mesopotamia but apparently they we out here with their cutting edge lentil farms on the Italian peninsula, too. Maybe I’ve just been sleeping on lentils
A really tasty dish. The sausages came out just right and the lentils were a great accompaniment. My only qualm was that the lentils took a bit longer to cook than the recipe suggested. Will definitely make again though!