Saturday, October 9, 2010

Italian Sausage Bread

I had never heard of Italian Sausage Bread before I happened across it on Food Blogga's site.  And the title didn't actually clarify it for me much, as I thought it would be just sausage cooked into bread, but it is much, much more.  Take your basic pizza dough and fill it with not just sausage, but pepperoni, egg, Parmesan, Mozzarella and Parsley.  It is like a great Omelet all cooked up into an easy to handle package.  Definitely more than just bread and sausage.


While you can use any version of your favorite pizza dough, or even use store bought dough, I decided to try the pizza dough recipe that the Daring bakers used a while back, why not kill two recipes with one dinner? (That's how the saying goes...right?)  It was fabulous for this.  For some reason in the final product the pizza dough ended up tasting buttery and almost pastry-like, even though there was no butter in the entire recipe.  I will definitely be using the same crust the next time I make this, and I will definitely be making it again. 


It seems like this would be a great thing to assemble Christmas Eve and then partially bake, finishing it up the next morning for an easy to make breakfast amid all the present opening chaos.  I am also curious how they would be assembled in miniature and then frozen in individual serving sizes.  Or how it would be with bacon, or ham, or fried onions or...I could go on.  There are so many possibilities with this recipe, and I think will have to try them all.  Hey, Babe and Little Man liked it, so I'm sure that they won't mind having another version of it in the future. 


I halved the recipe since there was only the three of us, big mistake.  I'm definitely going full size next time.  Even if there are leftovers, I hear they are supposed to be good toasted the next day.



Italian Sausage Bread
Ingredients
1 pound pizza dough, at room temperature
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound mild Italian sausage removed from the casing
1/2 cup pepperoni slices, quartered
6 large eggs lightly beaten, seasoned with salt and pepper
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella (about 1/2 pound)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Instructions1. Pre-heat oven to 425°F. Roll out room temperature dough into a rectangle about 10 X 12 inches on a very well floured counter. Cover while cooking the filling.

2. In a large heated pan, cook the sausage over medium high until well browned and crispy, about 8-10 minutes.  While it is cooking use a potato masher (or whatever is available, I found the potato masher worked best) to break up the sausage into small pieces. Add pepperoni and continue cooking another 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook, stirring often until the eggs are partially cooked and the cheese is starting to get melted and stringy.  Don't over cook the mixture, it is going to finish cooking in the oven.  You just want it to cooked enough to hold together for the assembly process.  Remove the mixture onto a plate to cool for 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Spread egg mixture on dough, leaving a 1-inch border all around. Fold the shorter sides of the dough over the filling so that when you roll it up nothing oozes out. Then, starting at an unfolded, longer sides, roll the dough up over the filling into a jelly roll type of loaf. Place the roll on a floured or parchment lined baking sheet in the middle of the pan with the seam side down.  Brush the top of the loaf with olive oil.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Cool slightly before serving. Eat hot or at room temperature.  Hey, Babe and Little Man liked it with ketchup and I liked it plain. 

I should have made more.

2 comments:

  1. This looks incredible. I once tried a similar version using ham and cheese, but Italian sausage sounds even better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ohohahohoho, is that what we're having for Christmas breakfast...
    -one of your brothers again

    ReplyDelete

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