If mealtimes are feeling a bit meh, you can count on a Masterchef winner to spice up your life. Jane Devonshire to the rescue with spicy sausage and fennel pasta.

Running out of ideas for delicious meals during lockdown? My repertoire isn’t exactly worthy of its own cookbook, so don’t rely on my pearls of wisdom. But a Masterchef winner, yup, she’s the gal you need right now. Say hello to Jane Devonshire – 2016 winner, who has worked with Michael O’Hare, Marcus Wareing, Michel Roux Jnr and Atul Kotchar to name a few, and popped up on BBC Breakfast, Loose Women, Woman’s Hour and now Muddy.

Jane’s cookbook Hassle Free Gluten Free is packed full of her favourite family recipes and they’re all gluten-free. Her youngest son Ben was diagnosed with coeliac disease aged two, so a strict gluten-free diet is really important. To says Jane’s a dab hand at adapting recipes, is an understatement, so what better time to learn from a master chef (sorry). Over to you Jane.

Spicy Gluten-Free Sausage & Fennel Pasta

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 2 packs gluten-free sausages (I used Marks and Spencers Cumberland) 
• 2 onions Chopped 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced/ grated
• 1-2 red chillies, fine chopped (you can use chilli sauce or dried if you don’t have)
• 1 medium fennel bulb grated tough outer leaves discarded and fronds reserved 

For the garnish

• Splash Oil
• 500ml tomato passata
• Grated Parmesan and reserved fennel fronds

Method

Gently fry off the onions, chillies, herbs, garlic and grated fennel in a large flat bottomed saucepan until soft and translucent about 5 minutes.

De-skin the sausages using a sharp knife or scissors and split each one into about 9 pieces dropping them into the saucepan with the cooked onion mixture as you go. Every couple of sausages just gently stir them around they should hold a small meatball shape but don’t worry too much.  Keep going until all 12 sausages have been used.

Once all the sausage meat is  in the pan gently cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes just to get all the sausage meat cooked through.

Add in 500ml of Tomato Pasta stir and leave to simmer whilst you cook the pasta. By the time the pasta is cooked your sauce will be ready to serve. Season with salt and pepper if needed (be careful often sausages are quite salty) and serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese and the fennel fronds.

We used Sainsbury’s Fusilli pasta but you can use whatever pasta you have to hand.  This sauce will also work well with polenta or rice if you have no pasta at home

Note: Any gluten-free pork sausages can be used and if you hate fennel you can easily create this and leave it out. This freezes really well so great to make and hook out just when you need it.

Hassle Free Gluten Free by Jane Devonshire is available now, £15.99.