Wee Willie Winkie Sausages and Mediterranean Vegetables Casserole

A lightly poached egg makes the perfect casserole topping

I've featured Wee Willie Winkie sausages a couple of times before on this blog but if you're unfamiliar with them, they're simply small, skinless pork sausages which are very popular in Scotland with children. They also make perfect cocktail sausages. They are usually gently fried before being served with fairly simple accompaniments. In this instance, however, I decided to bring these favourites from my own childhood in to the twenty-first century and incorporate them in a tasty casserole made from a selection of Mediterranean style vegetables. I have made the casserole a little bit spicy but that is optional, as is serving the poached egg on top.

Wee Willie Winkie sausages and Mediterranean vegetable selection for casserole

Ingredients (Serves Two)

12 ounce tray of assorted Mediterranean style roasting vegetables
Pack of 20 Wee Willie Winkie sausages
14 ounce can chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
1 red chilli pepper, seeded and moderately finely diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
Pinch of dried basil
Pinch of dried oregano
Few drops of Tabasco sauce
Salt and pepper
2 eggs
Freshly sliced basil leaves to garnish

Herbs and spices for casserole

Directions

Start your oven preheating to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 while you are assembling and preparing your ingredients.

Prepared garlic and chilli for casserole

Put all of your ingredients in to a large casserole dish. Make sure there is plenty of room in the dish as you are going to have to stir them well to combine.

Sausage and vegetable casserole ingredients are added to cooking dish

Use a wooden spoon to gently stir,turn,fold the ingredients together until fully mixed.

Sausage and vegetable casserole ingredients are carefully stir folded together

Put the lid on the casserole dish and place it in the oven for half an hour.

Cooked casserole is gently stirred before being left to rest

Take your casserole from the oven and lift the lid off (careful of escaping steam). Gently stir/fold again to make sure everything is coated in the sauce. Put the lid back on and leave to rest for five minutes while you poach the eggs.

Egg ready for poaching

The way I poach eggs, it's only really possible to poach one egg in the pot at a time. If poaching two eggs, you could either do one at a time or use two pots as I did.

The video below shows my egg poaching process in full. Simply make sure your speakers are turned on and click on the arrow in the centre of the screen to play.



The eggs in this instance were poached for three minutes.

Poaching egg in water and vinegar

While the eggs are poaching, divide the sausage and vegetable casserole between two deep serving plates with a slotted spoon.

Wee Willie Winkie sasuages and vegetable casserole is plated

Use a clean slotted spoon to lift an egg on to the top of each casserole serving.

Poached egg is lifted on to the top of the casserole

Garnish each plate with the finely sliced basil leaves.

Poached egg is garnished with some finely sliced basil leaves