Chorizo and Piquillo Pepper Traybake from Borough Market

This is an homage to Brindisa Ltd.’s legendary chorizo, piquillo pepper and rocket roll; one of the first and still one of the best street foods in London.

This one-tray sausage dish is rich, piquant and deceptively luxurious. It’s simple to cook, though the specific sausages are essential. These can be found at good market delis and online if you can’t make it to Borough. Also note that the addition of the ingredients to the roasting tin are staggered to ensure everything peaks at the same time.

SERVES 6

Ingredients
12 Brindisa dulce cooking chorizo
400g spring onions
7 tablespoons light olive oil
1 ciabatta loaf (about 250g)
leaves picked from 10 sprigs of thyme
1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
225ml fino sherry
200ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 x 390g tin whole piquillo peppers (or roasted peppers in brine), each split in two wild rocket, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C fan/220C/425F/gas mark 7.

Find a roasting tin that snugly fits the sausages and spring onions in a single layer. Cut any stringy roots from the spring onions and roughly chop the dark green ends, to leave onions around 8–10cm in length. Add these, the chopped spring onion ends and the sausages to the roasting tin. Roll the sausages and onions in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until glossy. Cook towards the top of the oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, tear the ciabatta into thumb width croutons. Place in a mixing bowl and toss with the remaining olive oil, thyme leaves, the finely grated zest of the lemon, and a good pinch of flaky sea salt and black pepper.

Remove the roasting tin from the oven and shuffle the sausages and spring onions to hide the browner spots. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C fan/200C/400F/gas mark 6. Add the garlic slices to the roasting tin, pour in the sherry and stock, and place on a slightly lower shelf in the oven for a further 15 minutes, turning the sausages once during that time.

Push the pepper halves among the sausages and onions and scatter the croutons over the top – where possible ensuring they sit on dry land, rather than in a puddle. Place the tin on the top shelf of the oven this time, cooking for 15 minutes more so that the croutons turn crisp and golden.

Serve with a wedge of lemon on each plate, plus fistfuls of peppery wild rocket to mop up the juices.

Recipe extracted from The Borough Market Cookbook by Ed Smith, published on 4th October 2018 by Hodder & Stoughton, £25 © Ed Smith 2018

Photography by Issy Croker