Cassoulet... in brief!

By using tinned confit de canard you can save some time.  One alternative is making a lamb stew including the beans' cooking liquid.

Instructions:

Soak large dried beans from the most recent harvest overnight in water.

Cover them in water, bring to boil then drain and discard water.  Cover well again, add a thick slice of bacon (simmered first in water if very salty), a whole peeled onion, stuck with 3 cloves, a peeled carrot, a celery stick and a pigs trotter if available.  Bring to a boil, skim off scum and simmer for 2 hours.

Meanwhile place tinned confit duck in a tray, skin side up, under a radiant grill to crisp up.  Brown some high fat content sausages in a large frying pan or casserole.  In the sausage pan, fry finely chopped onions until browned and softened.  Add tinned chopped tomatoes and simmer to thicken.  Add the beans' cooking liquid and simmer for 20 minutes.  Pour this sauce into a seive over a bowl and rub through with the back of a ladle, or pass through a vegetable mill.

Layer up the drained beans, sliced bacon, sausages and duck in a large casserole pot.  Salt and pepper the layers.  Sprinkle the surface with breadcrumbs then ladle over enough of the sauce to almost cover, but gently so as not to displace the crumbs.  Sprinkle with breadcrumbs again then spoon over duck fat from the confit tin.

Place into an oven at 160C, uncovered.  Allow a dark gratineed surface to form several times, each time breaking it up with a spoon so it may become partly submerged and ladelling over more of the reserved sauce to keep things from drying out or burning.  Keep this up for 2 hours or until you run out of liquid.

Allow to cool slightly before serving.  The classic wine match is a Cahors.