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Another splendid recipe from Gerry – have to say I loved these, and am a firm fan of his equally good Sausage Rolls. See below for the ingredients list – and a little ‘extra’!
This is a combination of Italian and English foods at their best and worst – think Greggs, but based somewhere near Naples. It’s a way of adapting my sausage roll recipe for the Italian themed Christmas gathering.
It starts with home made sausage meat – that way you can control the fat content and you know what’s in it. I wanted this one to be fairly high on the lard content because there wasn’t going to be a lot of sausage meat per parcel. Take about a pound of good fat loin or belly pork, remove the rind and chop finely (the blade on my old food processor isn’t as sharp as it used to be) put in a food processor with half a small onion, finely chopped, two large cloves of garlic, crushed, some suitable herbs (I could only find sage, thyme and savory in the garden so I added some dried Italian herb mix. I find the one from Tesco to be particularly good) and some salt and pepper. Process down to a fine sausage meat and put aside.
The next ingredient is tomato paste and couldn’t be simpler. Take a tin of tomato puree and mix in some herbs (see above), salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Put aside.
The third ingredient is mozzarella cheese – use the hard version intended for pizza, it has less moisture content (which would make the pastry soggy) and usually comes in rectangular blocks so it’s easier to cut into square pieces. You’ll need one large or two small blocks. Cut into approximately one inch squares about ⅛ inch thick.
Finally, beat an egg in a bowl.
Now the puff pastry. I’ve never made puff pastry and I don’t know anyone who has (correction – my wife has just informed me that she made puff pastry at school and it’s why she won’t ever make it again) so lets be grown up about this and go and buy it from the supermarket. If we’re buying it we might as well go the whole hog and buy it ready rolled. Four packs of the all butter variety will do. Make sure they’ve been left out of the fridge for a good quarter hour before you start assembly.
On a lightly floured work surface lay out one sheet of pastry, (or two if you’ve got enough work surface). Mark out into approximately ½ inch squares or whatever fits your pastry – mine made five squares across by three squares down. At my wife’s suggestion I bought a large square ravioli cutter to do this but you can just score the pastry lightly with a knife. On to each square place half a teaspoonful of the tomato sauce, a square of cheese and a flattened ball of sausage meat – a good teaspoonful per ball. Using your finger, run some beaten egg around each square to seal.
Carefully lay a sheet of pastry over the top, making sure you don’t dislodge any of the sausage meat balls – I found it useful to slightly stretch the top sheet before placing on top. Seal all around the edge then gently push the pastry down between the squares until you can seal the pastry between each parcel – you might need to prick the pastry to release any air bubbles – and then cut into individual squares. A ravioli cutter works really well for this because it cuts and seals firmly at the same time – a ravioli wheel cutter would work just as well. On my first attempt I managed a slightly more interesting effect by using a crinkle cut potato cutter to produce a wavy edge but a straight edge cut with a knife will be just fine.
Place the parcels on an oiled baking tray, slash the top of each parcel, glaze with beaten egg and top with grated Parmesan (I don’t have to tell you not to use the ready grated stuff in a tub, do I?) and a grind of black pepper. Preheat your oven to whatever works for pastry. All ovens are different, I know mine cooks pastry nicely at regulo 7 with the shelves just above half way up. Cook until nicely brown – don’t worry if the cheese is starting to escape – then put immediately onto a cooling rack. Don’t try to eat these hot, they will disintegrate in your hand spilling boiling tomato sauce and mozzarella everywhere. Have a little patience, let them cool down so the cheese solidifies. Serve. With just about anything.
Ingredients – makes approx 30
1lb belly pork/pork loin
half a small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
mixed Italian style herbs (fresh or dried)
salt, pepper
tin of tomato puree
Worcestershire sauce
1 large or 2 small packs of hard mozzarella cheese – about 300g
4 packs ready rolled all butter puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Parmesan cheese
ps. if you have any pastry and cheese left over – make cheese straws!
Roll out the pastry, cover with broken up pieces of mozzarella, fold into thirds, roll out again, add more cheese (grated red Leicester adds flavour and colour) fold into thirds again, fold in half, roll out, cut into strips, place on a greased baking tray, grate some parmesan on top (don’t glaze with egg) and cook until lightly browned. Allow to cool. Don’t serve – these are the cooks perks.
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