Merguez sausage, corn and red onion frittata

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There’s nothing like a black cab for getting around London, and no better source of London knowledge than a good cabbie. It was through one such taxi ride that we came to learn about the excellent Tachbrook Street Market in Pimlico. On a late-night trip home, our driver told us about a butcher there who makes the ultimate merguez, the Moroccan lamb sausages seasoned with paprika, cumin and herbs.

What cab drivers eat, we want to eat. Where they send us, we go. The market turned out to be charming: good eggs, plump tomatoes, taut ears of corn, a braid of young purple onions. It felt more like suburban France than central London. Less than a 10-minute bike ride from our home, and yet we never knew it existed. That in itself justified the cab fare. The sausages, when we tried them, certainly did. Good, fresh, discernible meat, assertive but balanced seasoning, the right amount of fat that rendered red and fragrant in the pan. We made ourselves this market dinner and had the other half the next day in a sausage and egg sandwich like no other.

Our sausage guide is as follows. Buy from a good butcher, one that makes their own. Ask about ingredients. If you’re buying from a deli or supermarket, read the label. The fewer ingredients, the better — and they should all be things you would find in a kitchen. Looking at the sausage, you should discern it as meat. If it is that pink smooth paste (mentioning no names, Cumberland) leave it be. Alternatively, get in a cab and ask your driver.

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Serves 4 as lunch or 6-8 as part of a picnic

This egg bake is lovely eaten warm with a side salad of sliced and dressed tomatoes and a little mustardy mayo, or kept at room temperature and eaten as part of a picnic spread or office lunchbox. If you don’t have an ovenproof frying pan, transfer the mix to an oven dish to bake but add five to six minutes to the cooking time.

Heat your oven to 200C (fan assist).
Remove the chewy casing from the sausages and break the meat up into small balls of about 20g-30g each.
Add one tablespoon of the oil to a large ovenproof skillet or frying pan, and put on a medium-low heat. Add the balls of sausage meat and cook for about 30 seconds before turning them over. Repeat another couple of times until the sausage balls are golden all over and have started to release some of their red oil into the pan.
Add the sliced onions and garlic and mix around to coat them in the oil. Sauté for about five minutes until the onions begin to soften.
Add the corn kernels and 200ml of water and cook until all the water

has evaporated and the corn is a bright yellow.
Whisk the eggs with the remaining oil and 50ml of water, seasoning with a little

salt and pepper.
Pour the eggs over the merguez and corn mix and transfer to the oven for 10 minutes until the egg mix is set. Serve direct from the pan or transfer to a plate.