Giant Sausage Roll

A giant Sausage Roll will feed the whole family. Serve this straight from the oven for a tasty supper or lunch, or have it cold for a picnic.

Giant Sausage Roll

Giant Sausage Roll is one of my son’s favourite meals. I think my mother-in-law made it once and then every time we visited because he was so keen on it. This is a very easy recipe to make.

Like all my recipes this month the emphasis is on eating not cooking, but I’m almost embarrassed to call this a recipe. It’s more of a ‘putting together and cooking’ thing.

3 ingredients

• Puff Pastry – You could make your own, but life’s too short, especially for a sausage roll. You can either buy puff pastry in a block or ready-rolled. You also have a choice of all-butter pastry, or not. All-butter, ready-rolled is the best-tasting, easiest option. (I finally figured out that it’s the rolling that I hate about pastry (you may have noticed that I never do any), so it’s a no-brainer.)

• Sausagemeat – Do you know what’s in it? It pays to be picky about sausagemeat – and sausages – as it can be a repository for all sorts of bits of animals we wouldn’t really want to eat if we knew about it. Buying from the butcher or the farm can be a better bet if you trust the source. Otherwise, the best quality the supermarket has to offer isn’t a bad option. In desparation, use sausages and take the skins off. A quick blitz turns them back into sausagemeat

• Chutney – The vital third ingredient in a Giant Sausage Roll is chutney. You could use Branston or whatever your favourite is, but tomato chutney is perfect with sausage, so why not give that a try?

• Egg Wash – Okay, that makes four and it’s totally optional, but your pastry will be golden and glowing if you brush it with egg before cooking. On the other hand, it’s a whole egg – but you could use the rest in scrambled egg.

You can eat the sausage roll hot or cold in the summer, or maybe both as there might be some left over. Leftovers don’t heat up well because the pastry can get a bit soft in the microwave, or the sausage will be too dry in the oven. But sometimes, even soft pastry is better than having to cook another meal!

If you like this…

…Why don’t you try:

HELPFUL TOOLS

• Magic Liner or a silicone baking mat – both reduce the washing up as they go into the dishwasher. You don’t have to grease them either as they’re totally non-stick
• Oven thermometer  – if you think your oven thermostat might not be telling you the truth (mine isn’t), this inexpensive thermometer will set you right. You do need one with large numbers so that you can read it from inside the oven.