Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb saucisses de Toulouse(French Garlic sausages*)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
2 crookneck squash
1 stalk celery, diced
1 shallot, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/3 cup du Puy lentils
4 cups chicken stock

Directions:

Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the vegetables. Sauté until the squash starts to soften and the onions are translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Add the bay leaf, salt, pepper, lentils, and stock. Cover and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Meanwhile, grill, broil or sauté the sausage until fully cooked.

Serve the sausage on a bed of warm lentils.

*I used these Toulouse Garlic sausages.

My thoughts:

Excuse my French if the title is incorrect! I’m relying on high school French here!

I was excited to make this dish because I finally got my hands on the French sausages that I love but are difficult to find outside of a restaurant menu. I’ve seen them served with du Puy lentils (the real kind! Don’t be fooled by imitators!) before but it is normally a heavy, wintery dish. In deference to the season, I lightened the classic up quite a bit and instead of root vegetables** I used some crookneck squash from our very own garden. And what a squash it was! I almost ate it freshly picked, it was so sweet smelling. But I resisted and instead incorporated it into this dish where cut the richness of the sausage.

**I have a good root vegetable du Puy lentil recipe in my last cookbook.