Baked sausages with tomatoes, peppers and onions, a movie, many tears and a wish

The subject of traveling in time has produced a handful of movies, some interesting, some hideous. Last night I watched another movie about it, by far the most beautiful one: a movie that made me cry like a baby (there were so many tears I had to dry them on my cardigan sleeve), that made me think of many things in life and that made me wish I could, too, go back in time.

I kept thinking of how incredible it would be to go back to my past and started imagining my mother and I in our kitchen – with the table where I used to do my homework while she did the dishes after lunch – and pictured us both cooking: I was chopping some onions, she was grilling a steak. And the funny thing is that in my head I wasn’t a kid: I was a 35-year-old adult, as I am today, standing next to her, who looked like she did when I was five. And another funny thing is that I don’t know why I thought of her grilling a steak since I hated it as a child – I usually ate my steak stone cold after seating on the table for hours, forbidden to leave as long as there was food on my plate. :)

Because Richard Curtis made me think of my mom a lot more than I already do every day, I decided to share this delicious recipe with you today: as a good German descendant, she loved pork (and cabbage – boy, she just loved the stuff) and I am sure she would go crazy for sausages cooked this way – the meat portions get golden and crispy on the outside, while tender and juicy within, and the thyme adds a wonderful touch.

Baked sausages with tomatoes, peppers and onions
from Bill Granger’s TV show “Bill’s Notting Hill Kitchen”

2 onions, peeled, halved, and each half cut into 4 pieces
1 large red pepper, seeds removed, cut into chunks
6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
200g cherry tomatoes
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 sausages
5-6 fresh thyme sprigs
handful black olives

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Place the onions, pepper, garlic and tomatoes in a medium roasting pan or ovenproof dish, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix to coat. Remove the sausage from their skins in portions (about the size of a meatball) and place over the vegetables. Scatter with the thyme sprigs, drizzle with a little more oil and bake for about 1 hour, turning the sausage halfway through cooking time so the pieces are golden all over. Remove from the oven, scatter with the black olives and serve.

Serves 2 generously