Thomasina Miers’ late-summer sausage and pea cassoulet with a butter leaf salad – recipes

A tempting sausage meatball stew with beans, peas, onions and fennel in a garlicky sauce, plus a summery butterhead lettuce salad with a burnt lemon and tarragon dressing I cooked at a festival near Bristol recently where another chef made pasta tossed with peas; whole peas that burst with each mouthful and a puree rich with basil and garlic. I jumped to help his team pod the peas, because I love this simple, meditative heralding of the summer (I also aways gobble a few raw while looking forward to how good they’ll taste once cooked). Here, the peas add bursts of sweetness to silky braised onions and fennel, with sausages falling apart in a garlicky meaty jus. Perfection with a lemony salad.