Nigel Slater’s sausages with avocado and feta recipe

Feta accompli: Nigel Slater’s sausages with avocado and feta recipe. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer

The recipe

Warm a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick frying pan then add four plump, lightly spicy sausages (about 300g), such as the fennel-seed freckled Italian salsiccia, and let them cook for 20 minutes over a low to moderate heat. Keep an eye on their progress and turn the sausages regularly so that they colour evenly.

Peel, halve and stone two perfectly ripe avocados. Put the flesh in a mixing bowl, then, using a spoon or fork, roughly crush to a coarse and lumpy texture. Chop a small handful each of coriander and parsley leaves (you need about 2 tbsp of each) and add to the avocado. Halve and finely chop a jalapeño or other moderately hot chilli then add to the herbs and avocado.

Coarsely crumble 200g of feta into the bowl, then gently fold the cheese, chillies, herbs and avocado together. Pour 3 tbsp of olive oil over it and divide between two plates. When the sausages are cooked, cut them into thick slices and add to the avocado and feta cream. Enough for 2.

The trick

Cook your sausages slowly. This way they will brown evenly and their skins won’t split. If you want, use a spoonful of the hot sausage fat from the pan as a further dressing for the avocado cream. This is a dish to eat as soon as it is made, but if you need to keep the avocado cream for more than a few minutes, add a dash of lemon juice to stop it discolouring.

The twist

The choice of sausage is up to you, but a fairly spicy one is good with the cooling avocado. Chorizo is particularly good if you yearn for something more spicy. You could add tomatoes, cored and diced.

Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk

Nigel Slater’s open sandwich recipe

In the open: Nigel Slater’s open sandwich recipe. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer

The recipe

Cut a ciabatta loaf in half horizontally. Toast the bread on the cut side. Put four heaped tablespoons of good mayonnaise in a mixing bowl, season it with black pepper and with the finely grated zest of a small lemon. Reserve the lemon. Finely slice four large radishes and put them in a mixing bowl. Trim three spring onions, discarding the tough, darker stalks, then cut the rest into small pieces and add to the radishes. Drain 100g of crayfish tails or prawns and roughly chop them. Wash a handful of watercress, discard any tough stalks, then add to the radishes together with a trickle of olive oil and a little sea salt and toss the mixture gently. Cut each half of the ciabatta into two. Spread the lemon mayonnaise over it, then divide the crayfish salad between them. Serves 2.

The trick

There is no second slice of bread under which to hide your filling. An open sandwich needs to be made at the last minute if it is to tempt. Keep the flavours light and fresh, and pick out only the most perfect of young salad leaves and herbs.

The twist

What you need on the toasted bread is a mixture of fresh seasonal salad and shellfish, and something to hold them in place. Use a classic mayonnaise or one seasoned with crushed, roasted garlic; or maybe a herb mayonnaise scented with tarragon or basil. Keep some crunch in the salad with radishes and spring onions, but also include cubed cucumber, coarsely grated celeriac or kohlrabi. Use cooked mussels from their shells, boiled brown shrimps or crab in place of the prawns.