Recipes
Nana’s Sausage Bread
This holiday recipe started by my mother many years ago in my family. Initially it was meant to be eaten with knife and fork (and you can still do this) but It has been perfected over the years by my sisters and I making it more of a tight cinnamon bun style roll so the amazing ingredients don’t fall out as you eat it. Now we eat with our hands. So… what my mother started for holidays is now a staple in the LaCasse family, no matter what the occasion.
Yield:
Ingredients
| 1 lb. ground sweet Italian sausage out of casings |
| 1 clove garlic, minced |
| 1⁄4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil |
| 1 teaspoon Fresh parsley |
| 2 med onions |
| Salt and pepper |
| Crushed red pepper flakes |
| 4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded |
| 2 pizza dough, balls |
| 1 egg |
| 2 cups marinara sauce (for dipping) |
Directions
- Coat two loaf pans with oil.
- Heat olive oil, add onions, salt, pepper and parsley. Cook onions until they are translucent, then add the garlic. Cook the onions until they are caramelized.
- Remove the onions to a bowl, do not clean pan.
- Put the sausage into pan and chop it into bite sized chunks. Cook the sausage until it is browned.
- Add the onions back to the pan with the sausage on low heat for about 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. DO NOT let it burn.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350.
- Flour a surface and roll out one dough ball with a rolling pin until it is the size of a large pizza.
- When the sausage mixture is finished, use a slotted spoon to scoop half of it onto the dough and spread it evenly over the surface. You will save the other half for the second dough. Cover with a layer of half the shredded mozzarella.
- Sprinkle with Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and chopped parsley
- Roll the dough up like a cinnamon roll, but tuck in the ends like a burrito before you get to the end of the roll.
- Put seam side down into loaf pans. Brush with egg
- Bake in the oven until golden brown, approximately 25-30 minutes. After baking, let the bread rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
- Repeat process for second loaf.
- Slice and serve with marinara sauce for dipping.
