Sausages are a staple home-cooking ingredient but they can become tiresome when served the same way.
Mary Berry has the perfect recipe for those looking to swap sausages and mash for something different, in this case, a savoury filo pie.
Sharing the sausage and spinach filo swirl in her book Mary Berry – Love to Cook, Mary said: “There are not many ingredients in this recipe and it is simple to make but so very tasty to eat!
“Similar to Greek spanakopita using filo pastry and spinach, I bake it in a cake tin to help the sausage swirl keep its shape.”
The recipe calls for a mix of leek and spinach to bulk out the filling, but any spring greens will work – as long as they’re fried off in butter beforehand.
Method
A preheated oven is essential for this recipe, so start by heating it to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7. Next, grease the sides of a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with butter.
Place the ring on a baking tray, discarding the bottom of it (the tray will act as the base).
For the filling, melt the knob of butter in a saucepan over high heat, then add the finely chopped leek and fry for a few minutes.
Cover the pan of buttery leeks with a lid, then lower the heat and cook for about 10 minutes, or until softened. Next, increase the heat, add the garlic and spinach and fry for a few minutes, until the spinach has wilted.
Tip all of the vegetables into a bowl to cool and make a start on preparing the sausages.
Carefully remove the sausage meat from their skins and place them in a bowl with the cooled vegetables. Season well with pepper and mix using your hands.
Brush the sheets of readymade filo with the melted butter and stick them together, end to end in two layers, to form one long rectangle measuring about 25x90cm/10x36in.
Shape the filling mixture into a long sausage, the same length as the filo rectangle, then place it along one long edge of the pastry and roll.
Brush the filo with butter in between each roll. Mary said: “You should end up with a long sausage encased in filo. Bend the filo roll into the ring to make a swirl. Brush the top with more butter and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.”
Finally, transfer the filled pastry swirl to the baking tray and position it inside the ring. Bake for 40–45 minutes until golden and crisp, then remove the ring and cut the swirl into wedges to serve.
