Mediterranean Sausage Salad

Julia "Hey Jules what do you want for dinner tomorrow night"?
Julian "I bought some nice leek and bacon sausages the other day we could have those"
Julia "Ok"

So I'm thinking great, sausages, mashed potatoes and peas, a little tomato sauce on the side and Bob's your auntie, the perfect blokes meal. What did we end up having? As you can see there is not a pea or a mashed potato in sight. Olives, chargrilled capsicum and baby new potatoes? Please, next thing you know I'll be drinking chai lattes and discussing curtain fabric, oh wait......damn it. To be honest I was surprised but not disappointed, it was delicious and a great new take on the humble yet mighty king of meat related products, the sausage.
Serves 4



6 sausages (I mean real sausages from a real butchery made with real meat)
Baby new potatoes
4 tomatoes, halved and grilled
1 grilled and peeled capsicum, sliced
1 onion, cut into eighths
6 cloves of garlic, skinned and cut in half
12 black olives (omit these if you don't like them)
2 tablespoons of fresh flat leafed parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon of chives, chopped
3 tablespoons of good quality extra virgin olive oil (the eating kind not the cooking kind)
Salt & fresh ground black pepper
Asparagus, steamed

Cook the sausages in a frying pan in a little oil and keep warm while you cook the onion and garlic in the sausage pan. Steam the potatoes and grill the pepper and tomatoes. To easily peel the capsicum put them into a sealed plastic bag for 10 minutes when they come out from under the grill, then take out and peel. Put the asparagus on when nearly ready to serve (just throw a bunch into a pot with an inch of boiling water).
Slice the sausages and mix in a lareg bowl with the hot, drained potatoes, onion, garlic, olives, herbs and capsicum. Dress with the oil and season with salt & pepper.
Serve on hot plates with the tomatoes and asparagus. We ate ours with a spicy plum sauce which i will give you the recipe for when our plum tree has been harvested and we make more of it (a few months away yet).