There they are, on page 18 of Denis Cotter’s great cookery book, For the Love of Food: ‘Lucy’s breakfast sausages with spiced tomato chutney’. And don’t they look delicious! Who else makes chestnut sausages this good? No one. Just Lucy Stewart.
That’s the thing about Gort na Nain: everything looks simple, but everything is sheer class. The hard work is hidden. The comfort of the farmhouse, the cheer of the hosts, the sublime nature of the food, with virtually all of it coming straight from Ultan’s acclaimed organic farm. It’s their own honey, their own eggs, their own chutneys, breads, pastas, the whole nine yards. So, get your feet under the table with your fellow guests to enjoy baby aubergines stuffed with courgettes and toasted pine nuts; Puy lentil and garlic potatoes wrapped up in chard parcels; home-made rhubarb ripple ice cream. You waft up the stairs to bed and sleep the good sleep and, next morning, there they are: Lucy’s legendary chestnut sausages, with a poached egg straight from the happy hens. Ah, the good life was never better than here at Gort na Nain.
