Claire Macdonald recipe: Italian sausage, fennel and roasted tomato gratin with cannellini beans

By Xanthe Clay Published: 7:00AM GMT 18 Feb 2010

Italian sausage, fennel and roasted tomato gratin with cannellini beans Photo: LEWIS J HOUGHTON

Serves 6

Dinner party recipes from Claire Macdonald

1lb/450g cherry tomatoes

2-3 fat cloves of garlic, skinned and thinly sliced

5 tbsp olive oil

tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

6 large banana shallots (or 18 small ones), skinned, halved lengthways and very thinly sliced

3 fennel bulbs, trimmed, halved and thinly sliced

2 x 14oz/400g jars of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

8 Italian sausages, each slit with the point of a sharp knife and the skins peeled off

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.Line a baking tray with baking parchment and lay on the cherry tomatoes. Add the garlic and 1 tbsp olive oil. Mix together with your hands. Scatter with the chilli flakes (if using), 1 tsp salt and about 20 turns of the pepper grinder. Roast the tomatoes in the oven for 30 minutes.In a large saut pan, heat the remaining 4 tbsp of olive oil and fry the shallots gently for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and transparent. Stir in the fennel, turn up the heat to medium high and fry for 8-10 minutes. Stir the roasted garlic tomatoes and the cannellini beans into the fennel and shallots, then tip the contents of the saut pan into an ovenproof dish. Chop the skinned Italian sausages into dice and cover the surface of the vegetable mixture with a thick layer of the diced sausage. Bake the gratin in the hot oven for 35-45 minutes, until the surface is golden brown.The gratin can be kept warm in a low oven for up to an hour. Loosely cover the top of the gratin with a piece of baking parchment to stop it drying out.