Recipe by Cat Rochefort (http://catskitchenfrance.com/ / @cats_toulouse_kitchen) a Leiths School of Food and Wine Diploma Student.
This recipe goes along with the herbs in our Autumn Culinary Herb Box.
I’ve always loved sage. Its downy leaves add a fragrant touch to all manner of dishes, whether complimenting a golden roast chicken with its earthy flavours or adding some depth to an apple sauce. I adore sage leaves fried in brown butter smothered all over a big plate of ravioli. Here I’ve paired it with fennel and pork in a lip-smacking sausage roll recipe that’s at just at home as a Christmas treat or a midsummer snack.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 bunch of fresh sage (reserve some small leaves to decorate)
- 1 small fennel bulb, diced
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 1 fat garlic clove, peeled and crushed
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 450 g sausage-meat
- 100 g fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry,
- 1 egg, to glaze
Steps:
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan, add the fennel and onion and sweat until soft, around 15 mins. You can add a splash of water to stop it from catching.
- Pick six smaller sage leaves and reserve for decoration. Pick the rest of the leaves and finely chop.
- Place the sausage-meat, chilli flakes, fennel seeds, breadcrumbs, garlic and sage together with the sweated onion and fennel in a bowl and combine everything well with your hands.
- Unroll the sheet of puff pastry onto baking parchment on the work surface.
- Leaving a 2-3cm border on the bottom edge, shape the meat mixture into a thick sausage shape across the length of the pastry.
- Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush some glaze onto the bottom pastry border.
- Flip the top part of the pastry tightly over the sausage meat and press down to seal onto the egg glaze.
- Use a fork to make small indentations along the seal.
- Trim off any excess pastry and glaze all over. Place into the fridge to chill for 15 minutes
- Heat the oven to 200° fan, place a baking sheet in the oven.
- Once the oven is up to temperature remove the sausage roll from the fridge and cut into 6 equal portions. Glaze the rolls again and this time place a small sage leaf on top of each one, brushing with a little more glaze to help it stick.
- Take out your preheated baking sheet and line it with grease proof paper. Place the sausage rolls onto the sheet and then return it to the oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 200° and then turn down to 180° for the remaining 10 – 15 minutes until risen and deep golden.
If you love the sounds of this recipe and herb-based cooking check out our Master Classes and other Herb-based recipes.
