For me, this is the perfect Sunday night dinner. I first tried it years ago when experimenting with different ways to use sausages in more interesting ways, and is loosely based on a River Cafe recipe for a quick sausage sauce. It has since become a firm favourite, and the perfect dish when all you have in the fridge is a few sausages. (Hey, it’s been a busy week!)

Gently saute a few French shallots in olive oil. Slice open the side of four or five good quality, traditional Italian sausages (mine are from my fave local butcher, Dulwich Hill Gourmet Meats) and squeeze the meat into the pan.

Brown the sausage meat and break it up with the back of a wooden spoon. Add a few rosemary sprigs, two dried chillies, and an anchovy or two.

Add two tins of tomatoes and season with salt. Allow to simmer for 15 – 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened, then add a couple of tablespoons of cream.

Serve with ridged, tubular pasta such as rigatoni or penne rigate, with plenty of parmesan. I also like to use butter instead of (or sometimes as well as!) olive oil when using this sauce. As you can see there’s an extra little dollop of butter melting there on the top as well. It’s just so very wintery and comforting!

(N.B: The other great thing to do with sausages is to use them as ready-made meatball mince and just squeeze blobs out the end into a hot pan.)

Liv Mackay is regular blogger for the MasterChef Food Hub and at scoffandquaff.me