Sausage Plait for the Whole Family

The sausage plait; grown up big brother to the sausage roll, ideal for changeable summers like these; equally at home served hot with vegetables or cold with a salad or in a lunch box.  The ultimate "what on earth is the weather doing?" food.

The good thing about this recipe is it has some sneaky hidden vegetables too which are not only your fussy child insurance policy but also helps make the recipe more thrifty.

I used the herbs which are growing in my garden and so far not completely destroyed by slugs.  Just use what you have or fancy.

Sausage Plait - would serve 4 easily, maybe more

Ingredients

One 375g, 13oz pack of ready made, ready rolled puff pastry (there will be trimmings you can use for cheese straws or similar if liked)
400g, 14oz good quality sausages
1 grated courgette (zucchini)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
1 tsp vegetable oil
Herbs - I used a mixed tbsp of chopped fresh parsley, sage, thyme and oregano
1 egg

Method

Heat the oil in a frying pan and gently saute the onion until translucent.  Add the garlic then the courgette (zucchini).  Fry for a few minutes until lots of the moisture has been driven off.  Put into a bowl to cool.

Once cool, preheat the oven to 200oC, 400F, squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins and mix with the vegetables and herbs.

Now I used some non stick baking paper on my tray and annoyingly this still stuck.  I'll be tempted next time to dispense with the paper.  Lay out the pastry onto a tray, I trimmed the ends as they were a bit folded over and damaged and making a large sausage shape, put the meat mixture down the middle of the pastry leaving a gap either side and at the ends.

Cut strips down either side as shown in the picture and then fold in the strips one side then the other.  Fold in the ends trimming out the corners a bit so there's not too much pastry.

Brush with beaten egg then bake for 20 minutes, lower the heat to 150oC, 300F and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Take out of the oven and either serve warm or cold.  (Once cold store in the fridge.)

The inspiration for this recipe was from a friend on a forum saying her son wasn't keen on vegetables but would eat a commercially made sausage plait and also in response to Beena Nadeem's request for lunch box friendly food.  Not that I'm pretending this is the healthiest thing to serve every day but it would be a great idea as a "suitable for tea and handy for leftovers" meal.  If your house is anything like ours, we eat together at lunchtime but with the best intentions I'm just not hungry when my son is at 4:30pm so either we have something different or we need something that will keep.  Likewise when I'm going to work, it's great to have something you can grab from the fridge at 5:30am.  After all I have been known to steel a small pot of meatballs I'd intended to serve to my son and have them warmed up in a sub!  Naughty Mummy!

I've submitted this to 'herbs on a saturday' competition hosted this month by Bangers and Mash.

I've also linked this up here.