Sausage and Vegetable Sheet Pan Dinner

Ingredients

• 8 good-quality pork sausages
• 500g new potatoes, halved
• 2 courgettes, cut into 2cm half-moons
• 300g cherry tomatoes on the vine
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 red onions, cut into thin wedges
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp clear honey
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Crusty bread, to serve
• Flaky sea salt, to serve
• Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle, to serve
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Tip the halved new potatoes onto a large, lipped baking tray — give them room, because a crowded tray steams instead of roasts. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper, and toss to coat.
2. Roast the potatoes for 15 minutes, until they're starting to turn golden at the cut edges and you can hear them sizzling when you pull the tray.
3. Pull the tray out and push the potatoes to one side. Add the courgette, red onion wedges and the unpeeled garlic cloves — leaving the skins on protects them from scorching at this heat, since bare garlic burns and turns bitter fast.
4. Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, scatter over the oregano, fennel seeds and chilli flakes directly onto the hot oil — this is your bloom moment, the heat wakes the spices up so they taste of themselves rather than dusty cupboard. Season well and toss everything together.
5. Nestle the sausages among the vegetables in a single layer with breathing room between them — crowd them and they'll braise in their own steam instead of browning. Return the tray to the oven for 15 minutes, until the sausages are beginning to colour and the onions are softening at the edges.
6. Tuck the cherry tomatoes on the vine between the sausages and roast for a further 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are blistered and bursting and the sausages are deep mahogany with no pink at the centre.
7. While the tray finishes, whisk the wholegrain mustard, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and honey in a small bowl with a pinch of salt. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from their skins — they should be soft and sweet, the colour of toffee — mash with the back of a fork and whisk into the dressing. Taste it: it should be sharp, savoury, just rounded by the honey. Adjust the salt now, not at the table.
8. Plate it straight from the tray. Spoon the mustard and roast garlic dressing over the hot vegetables and sausages so it pools in the corners, scatter the chopped parsley over the lot, finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and bring it to the table with crusty bread to mop up the juices.