Making a Meal of It- Chorizo, Pepper and Fennel Bake with Hazelnut Crumb

Sometimes you just have to rely on what you already have in your fridge. It can be fun, challenging your inventiveness in the kitchen to conjure something out of nothing. Some days you can have a bountiful fridge, but if you're like me, more often than not it can be bare. The other night all I could really find we're an old half block of Parmigiano Reggiano and some spaghetti in the cupboard. It turned into a lovely dish of Cacio e Pepe- one of the most simple yet dishes you could ever make!

But last night I was fortunate to have a few bits and bobs lying around. There were some red peppers and a bulb of fennel I had leftover from my market shop at the weekend, an onion and some garlic and lemon thyme I hadn't used from some chicken I recently made the other night. There was also chorizo lurking that I hadn't touched in a week and slowly an idea for a recipe was coming to form. Pork and fennel work well together so why not chorizo.

I chopped the onion and garlic and laid them at the bottom of a lined baking tin. I spotted a jar of some lovely black olives in the cupboard which I sliced in half and added to the bottom layer. Next, I placed the whole chorizo sausages, the quartered red peppers, and fennel in the tray. Some red pepper flakes I sprinkled on top with some black pepper and salt, but it was missing something. To the rescue were some hazelnuts in the baking cupboard, which I blitzed with the lemon thyme to form a crumb for the bake and into the oven it went.

Ready to Blitz!

The apartment smelled amazing! The dish came out, and it was exactly what I wanted- a browned herby crumb topped the chorizo and vegetables in a thin layer of savory, spicy chorizo oil. I had a delicious boule of rosemary bread from the wonderful people at the Blackbird Bakery in Herne Hill which would be perfect for mopping up all the sauce. There was some leftover fresh goat's cheese in the fridge which I crumbled over the dish which worked well to bring the dish together. a squeeze of lemon juice to finish cut the richness of the chorizo. It was a lovely meal.

Straight out of the Oven

 There have been some experiments gone wrong in the past; we've all been there. But sometimes things just click.

Chorizo, Pepper and Fennel Bake with a Hazelnut Crumb

(Serves two people)

Ingredients

- 4 medium chorizo sausages

- 2 red peppers

- 1 fennel bulb

- 1 white onion

- 3 cloves garlic

- A handful of halved black olives

- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp. red chili flakes
- 150g hazelnuts

- Small bunch of lemon thyme

- 2 tbsp fresh goat's cheese
- 1 lemon

- A handful of fresh basil leaves

- Salt and pepper to taste

Method

- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Line a roasting tin with parchment paper.
- Roughly slice the garlic and onion and arrange evenly at the bottom of the roasting tin. Slice the black olives in halves and add to the bottom layer.
- Quarter and de-seed the red peppers and quarter the fennel bulb after removing the top and bottom. Arrange in the roasting tin on top of the layer of garlic, onion, and olives.
- Add 4 whole chorizo sausages amongst the veg and drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and some red chili flakes.
- In a food processor pulse the lemon thyme and hazelnuts and some salt and pepper (remove the woodier part of the stems of the thyme, a few soft stems won't hurt!) and pulse until roughly chopped. - Sprinkle this evenly over the chorizo and the vegetables and bake in the oven for approximately 20  minutes (or until the crumb is well browned).
- sprinkle some crumbled goat's cheese, a squeeze of lemon juice, some fresh basil and a hunk of fresh crusty bread.