Skillet sausages with fudgy sweet potatoes

for hunkering down

Give the gift of simple dinners. Say a cookbook, or a gift subscription to this newsletter, which only uses 40 ingredients for minimal shopping and maximal joy.

Even in the freezing weather there is enough edible treasure around if you know where to look.

This cook is cold, so cold, but full of hope.

Time to hunker down and roast, bake and stew.

One of the purest pockets of the internet used to be @quotesNigel, a fan account that excerpted glorious bites of Nigel Slater-isms. Even though the account seems less active these days, Slater’s food writing is timeless and can be revisited like sitcom re-runs.

It’s especially nice to read this time of year because Slater loves winter in a way I do not.

Snow, frost, ice and clear, pearl-grey skies appeal so much more to me than bright sun and fierce light. But then, I'm a funny old bugger.

nigelslater

A post shared by @nigelslater

I think of him when I’m cooking winter food. Orange foods. Fudgy potatoes. Succulent sausages. Butter.

There will be carbs. They protect and energize us.

There's not many people I know who don't like a sausage.

I hope he’d like today’s warming recipe. Out of the oven comes a skillet of browned sausages and creamy-crisp sweet potatoes glossed in a braising liquid of sausage drippings, herbs, garlic, chile flakes — and a little butter.

The idea started with the French dish of fondant potatoes, in which seared potatoes soak up a buttery broth, and ended up somewhere browner, deeper, sweeter, spicier, meatier, headier, more-ish.

Frankly, I think we all deserve a bit of a treat right now.

Cookie box interlude

Last week I told you what I thought was making it into this year’s cookie box, but here’s what actually happened. Was it a lot of work? Yes, but it’s a great excuse to stay inside when winter is outside. Could you just make one or two cookies to give to people? Totally! But I always wanted to make a bunch of cookies and spread them around the neighborhood and I finally got to. Happy, merry cookie to me.

Fruit & Nut Bars

Skipped the chocolate in the recipe in favor of more nuts and more fruit. These ended up a little sweet for me, probably because I didn’t use salted nuts like the recipe (my own recipe…) says you must.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite of the batch. Bitter and gooey and nubbly with cacao nibs.

Miso Macaroons

Added these at the last minute when I wasn’t happy with the Fruit & Nuts bars, and they ended up being everyone else’s favorite. I added 1 tablespoon white miso to Step 1 of Alice Medrich’s incredible recipe, but wish I’d added the miso at the end, right before the 30 minute rest, for more pronounced flavor.

Lemon Shortbread

Baked in two 9-inch rounds for thin triangles. Yes to the preserved lemon. Also yes to a longer bake time than instructed.

Chewy Spice Molasses Cookies

So many kind people wrote in with their recommendations for a chewy, very spicy ginger-molasses cookie. I tried three last weekend; Claire Saffitz’s made it into the box. While it had a cozy blend of spices, it still wasn’t not spicy enough, so yesterday I made three more recipes. It is an obsession at this point.

The recipe that had my ideal texture, color and spiciness is the one I always make. This one from Blue Bottle’s cookbook is the one for me, forever and ever. (I use Dutch processed cocoa, green-pod cardamom, and regular unsulphured molasses.)

Bottom left: My preferred ginger molasses cookie

Skillet sausages with fudgy sweet potatoes

Serves 4

• 4 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds)

• 3 garlic cloves

• 4 Italian sausages, sweet or hot

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more as needed

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 tablespoon rosemary, thyme or sage leaves

• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Peel 4 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds), cut off the ends to create flat sides, then cut crosswise into 1-inch thick rounds. Coarsely chop 3 garlic cloves.

2. Brown the sausages and sweet potatoes: In a large, oven-proof skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium. Using a fork, poke holes all over 4 Italian sausages. Add the sausage to the skillet and turn occasionally until browned but not cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer the sausage to a plate. Add the sweet potatoes to the skillet in a single layer. Season with salt and pepper. Sear until the potatoes are a deep golden brown on the bottom, 4 to 6 minutes. If the potatoes are burning or the skillet is dry, add a little more oil.

3. Flip the potatoes and stack them on one side of the skillet. In the open area of the skillet, add 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, the garlic, 1 tablespoon rosemary, thyme or sage leaves and 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Stir until the garlic is fragrant, just a minute or two. Spread the potatoes out in a single layer, browned side up, and add enough water to come three-quarters of the way up the sweet potatoes (about 1 cup for me). Bring to a boil over high.

4. Place the sausages on top of the potatoes, then place the skillet on a sheet pan. Transfer to the oven. Bake until potatoes are tender and sausage is cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve the sausage and sweet potatoes drizzled with the pan juices.

PRINT THE RECIPE

Skillet Sausages With Fondant Sweet Potatoes Ali Slagle's 40 Ingredients Forever

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SWAPS

• Sweet potatoes: Russet potatoes on the smaller side

• Garlic: Finely chopped shallot

• Italian sausages: I bet this would work well with bone-in chicken thighs.

• Rosemary, thyme or sage leaves: Use their dried versions, or leave them out.

• Crushed red pepper: You kind of need some heat to offset the sweetness of the sweet potatoes, so consider another source of heat like black pepper or a halved and seeded habanero.

STUFF TO ADD

• Eat it with a green vegetable. I went with some dandelion greens sprinkled with Sherry vinegar, you could also roast green beans or broccoli rabe on a sheet pan while the sausages and potatoes are cooking.

Recipe testing by Theo Kaloudis