Saucisses à la languedocienne

This weekend I cooked and posted about topinambours (Jerusalem artichokes) à la boulangère. They were good, and we finished them yesterday at lunchtime. Gratins are often good reheated, like other casserole dishes. With the Jerusalem artichokes, we had sausages in a tomato/caper sauce called saucisses à la languedocienne. The Languedoc is an ancient province in southern France, bordered by Provence, the Perigord, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Pyrenees mountains.

This is a recipe I stumbled upon when doing research in the Larousse Gastronomique food and cooking encyclopedia. I was looking up information about saucisses de Toulouse, because I had bought some of those at a local supermarket, Intermarché, a few days earlier. Saucisses de Toulouse are about the plainest sausages you can buy, and that's what makes them good.

 They're also called saucisses au couteau because they are, at least traditionally, made with pork (shoulder and lean breast) that has been chopped with a knife, not run through a grinder. The meat used for Toulouse sausages is simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Saucisses de Toulouse are good served with beans, as in cassoulet (a Toulouse and Castelnaudary specialty). They're good baked in the oven, fried in a pan on top of the stove, grilled, or poached in water or wine.

 They come in two forms: saucisses portion (classic sausages, which is what I had this time), or saucisse brasse — a long section of bulk sausage that is often presented wound into a spiral, sometimes called en escargot (snail-style — no, there's no snail meat in it!). That's what's pictured here. The escargot-shaped sausage can be held together for cooking by running two long skewers through it, perpendicular to each other in a cross shape.

 
The recipe I happened upon in the Larousse Gastronomique calls for pan-frying the Toulouse sausage in goose fat (butter, oil, bacon fat work fine too) for 15 to 20 minutes, covered, along with some diced garlic and some herbs (thyme, bay leaf...). Turn the sausage(s) once during the cooking time and make sure the meat is completely cooked through. Then take the sausage out and reserve it in a dish in a warming oven.

Degrease and then deglaze the frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of vinegar, which should evaporate almost completely. (Use wine if you don't like vinegar, I say.) Pour a cup or so of vegetable or chicken broth and half a cup of puréed tomato into the pan. Spoon in two or three tablespoons of whole capers (from a jar, packed in vinegar or brine) and let the sauce reduce until it's as thick as you want it to be.

Spoon some the sauce over the reserved sausage, serving the rest separately. Serve hot. This tomato-caper sauce is also really good served with pommes de terre or topinambours boulangère, and it would be good with frites, sautéed potatoes, or purée de pommes de terre. Also rice, polenta, or pasta.

Here's the recipe for the sausages from the Larousse Gastronomique (it's in both the 2007 electronic version of the book and in the 1967 printed edition). It calls for a long piece of saucisse roulée en escargot (2.2 lbs.).

Saucisse à la languedocienne

Rouler en spirale 1 kg de saucisse de Toulouse et la piquer avec 2 brochettes croisées pour qu'elle garde cette forme.

Chauffer dans une sauteuse 3 cuillerées à soupe de graisse d'oie et y mettre la saucisse. Ajouter 4 gousses d'ail émincées et 1 bouquet garni. Cuire 18 min à couvert ; retourner la saucisse à mi-cuisson. L'égoutter, la débrocher, la dresser dans un plat rond et la tenir au chaud.

Dégraisser puis déglacer la sauteuse avec 2 cuillerées à soupe de vinaigre, puis mouiller de 30 cl de bouillon et de 10 cl de purée de tomate ; faire réduire. Ajouter 3 cuillerées à soupe de câpres au vinaigre et 1 cuillerée à soupe de persil ciselé. Mélanger et napper la saucisse de cette sauce.