Jamie Oliver friday~Sweet Cherry Tomato & Sausage Bake~

Our garden is still going gangbusters with tomatoes and cucumbers, so of course I chose another Jamie Oliver tomato recipe. This Friday's recipe is Jamie Oliver's Sweet Cherry Tomato & Sausage Bake and it is very, very easy to make AND eat. You will need:

• 4 1/4 pounds lovely ripe cherry tomatoes, mixed colors if you can find them ( I used our garden cherry and Roma tomatoes , I chopped the Romas up into quarters)
• 2 sprigs each of fresh thyme, rosemary and bay ( from our garden)
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano ( from our garden)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 12 good-quality coarse Italian pork sausages
• extra virgin olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

"Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Get yourself an appropriately sized roasting pan, large enough to take the tomatoes in one snug- fitting layer. Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages. Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and the balsamic vinegar and season with the salt and pepper. Toss together then make sure the sausages are on top and pop the pan into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give it a sake and turn the sausages over. Put back into the oven for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how golden and sticky you like your sausages." "Once it's cooked, you'll have an intense tomatoey sauce. If it's a little too thin, lift out the sausages and place the pan on the stove to cook it down to the consistency you like-I tend to make mine quite thick- then put the sausages back in. Check the seasoning and then serve either with a good quality loaf of bread warmed through in a low oven for 10 minutes, great for mopping up the sauce~ or with mashed potato, rice or polenta, a green slald and a nice glass of wine." Jamie Oliver

This ( above) is what it looked like before I put it into the oven, and below I dished it up and put it on top of mashed potatoes. Our garden also has produced a LOT of potatoes . The sweet corn, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes and herbs all came from our garden.

I did not cook the sauce down until thick because I like it thinner, however, my husband said he prefers the sauce cooked down, and next time he would like this served over rice or noodles. So I baked the remaining sausages and tomatoes for another hour on low heat and it is perfect! Hunting season is drawing near for my husband and Jamie has a few game recipes I think we need to try. I am really enjoying this cook book because he does cook with what is in season in his garden and in his area of the world, England. Amazingly, his garden and game opportunities are very similar to ours which makes this a very practical cook book for us. Plus, Jamie's book, JAMIE AT HOME is a beautiful book, real eye candy!