Sausages are thrifty, comforting and easy to cook with, so it’s no wonder they’re one of our favourite staples. One of the best things about them is that they can be served in their traditional shape or squeezed from their skins, meaning they're a hard-working kitchen multi-tasker that, despite their staid image, deserves to be celebrated. Read on to discover our original serving ideas for the brilliant banger.

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A quick sausage glossary

British bangers: Traditional British sausages are usually made from pork (be sure to read the percentage meat content to make sure you don’t end up with a banger filled with more filler ingredients than actual pig). Our favourites include sage-studded Lincolnshire, miniature pure-pork chipolatas and peppery Cumberlands.

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Chorizo: This well-loved Spanish sausage comes in two forms: ready-to-eat in slices or a hard sausage, or soft cooking chorizo. Treat the latter as you would any other raw pork sausage.
Our top chorizo recipes
Buy the best by reading our review of chorizo sausages

Merguez: Spicy beef or lamb merguez are popular in North African and Middle Eastern cuisine. Like chorizo, it's a sausage that imparts its flavour during cooking, so expect a hit of cumin, paprika and harissa from these punchy, thin sausages.
Merguez sausage recipes

More like this

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Toulouse: French, cassoulet-friendly Toulouse sausages come in several iterations, but you get more banger for your buck with ones made with garlic, red wine and bacon.
What to cook with Toulouse sausages

Nduja and sobrassada: Spreadable, spicy Mediterranean sausages are now a mainstay on restaurant menus. The beauty of these vivid red spreads is that they liquefy when heated, so are ideal for running through pasta and sauces as an earthy, spicy elixir. Balearic sobrassada is similar in nature to nduja, in that it’s made from offcuts of pork meat and fat, flavoured with red pepper and chilli. Nduja is sold in jars as a spread, as well as in the traditional sausage shape.
Try nduja in our baked hake dish

Top 10 ways to serve sausages

Squeezed into balls...

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Pliable sausage meat is ideal for working into meatballs, and thanks to the high fat content they stay nice and juicy during cooking. Just squeeze the meat from the skins into a bowl and get stuck in. We like to flavour the balls with ingredients like fennel, parmesan, garlic and chilli.
Try it yourself…
Pea, pesto & sausage meatball lasagne
Sausage minestrone
Swedish-style sausage meatballs
Golden squash & sausage risotto

Made into patties...

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May we introduce… the breakfast burger. Similar to the meatball principle above, sausagemeat can be shaped into patties and pan-fried until crisp and golden on the outside. We like stacking them in a muffin or bun with bacon, a lavish slice of cheese and, as a sumptuous summit, a perfectly-fried runny egg. They can be served in place of traditional burgers at dinner time too.
Try it yourself...
Sausage & egg baps with spicy tomato sauce
The great breakfast burger

In ragu...

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Rather than squeeze sausagemeat into neat shapes, pinch rough pieces off into little nuggets to be fried like mince, for which there’s no better use than a ragu/ ragout. Keep the pieces as coarse as you like – we opt for half-walnut size so it’s a cross between fine meat ragu and meatballs.
Try it yourself…
Italian sausage & chestnut pasta
Cheesy polenta & sausage ragout
Quick sausage Bolognese

On a stick...

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Make life easier for your dinner guests by serving your sausages on a kind of meaty lance, ready to be unthreaded – who doesn’t love an interactive dinner? These skewers come with ciabatta and tomatoes and have ‘your next favourite family meal’ written all over them.
Try it yourself…
Sausage & pancetta skewers

As a hot dog (but not as you know it)...

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Okay, so a hot dog bun was designed to cosily house a sausage and all that, but rules are made to be broken. Behold the sloppy sausage chilli dog, a deconstructed hot mess of a meal, served with spicy tomato sauce, kidneys and cheese. Abundant napkins required.
Try it yourself…
Sloppy sausage chilli cheese dogs

As a giant sausage roll...

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Bigger is better, especially when it comes to matters of pastry. Our turbo-charged sausage roll has the meat/carb ratio down to pat, and it’s served with homemade baked beans – a sausage’s kindred spirit. Our Tex-Mex sausage plait is slightly more complicated to make, but the nifty lattice top isn’t as hard to achieve as you might think.
Try it yourself…
Jumbo sausage roll with salsa baked beans
Tex-Mex sausage plait

Pork and sausage rolls

On pizza...

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Reason #1276 why sausages are the most life-saving ingredient ever – they can be used to throw together a quick midweek pizza. All you need is a cheat’s ciabatta bread mix (shhh – nobody will be able to tell), some storecupboard ingredients and a few dots of mustardy sausage. The sausage cooks as the pizza does.
Try it yourself…
Sticky sausage & onion pizza
Sicilian deep pan pizza with sausage & provolone

As a cartwheel...

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Our campfire recipe demonstrates how sausages can be an actual art form. Use wooden skewers to secure linked chipolatas into a coil, then glaze with mustard, cider and honey. The cooked wheel is then served in chunks with a homemade slaw. Someone please reserve us some wall space at the Tate.
Try it yourself…
Sticky cider & mustard sausage wheel with box grater salad

In pasties...

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Switch pastry for dough and create a porky parcel based on a classic (and slightly trashy) combination – sausage, beans and cheese. Oh don’t pretend you don’t love it…
Try it yourself…
Sausage, bean & cheese pasties

In a stir-fry...

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Sausages and Asian food might not be the most obvious combination that springs to mind, but bangers are robust enough to handle plenty of spice. Our brunch mash-up is part kedgeree, part egg fried rice, and comes with a mean hit of fresh chilli. Serve it with soy and chilli sauce to send your day off to a flying start.
Try it in…
Spicy fry-up rice

More traditional serving methods

Sausage stir-fry doesn’t quite float your boat? Try one of our classic sausage suppers…

Toad-in-the-hole
Bangers and mash
Casserole
Sausage rolls

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How to you serve sausages? Are you a traditionalist or do you like to experiment with new dishes? We'd love to hear your ideas...

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