I found this recipe in a BBC good food magazine and intended to serve it as part of a Christmas dinner. I had prepared the stuffing a week before and froze it, but when it came to the day I realised that the table would already be groaning under the amount of food I had planned, so reluctantly, I made do with the three other stuffing’s I had already cooked.
A few days later I rescued it from the freezer drawer and decided it looked filling enough to take pride of place as the main dish for dinner. It worked really well, although I think a lot of its success is down to the quality of the sausage meat.
So whether you want an impressive looking accompaniment to roast turkey or a tasty and reasonably economical main course give this a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
SAUSAGE NUT STUFFING CAKE
Serves 8-10 (as an accompaniment)
or 4-6 (as a main dish)
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons olive oil
25 g butter
3 shallots, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
100 g white breadcrumbs
500 g good-quality sausagemeat
56 g roughly chopped walnuts, plus extra to serve
grated zest 1 small orange
1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves, or 1 tsp dried
1 egg, beaten
8 rashers rindless streaky bacon
handful chopped parsley, to serve
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 200C/gas 6.
Heat the oil and butter and gently fry the shallots and celery for 5 mins without colouring them.
Tip into a bowl with the breadcrumbs, sausage meat, walnuts, orange zest, sage and egg. Add plenty of pepper and a little salt, and mix together well.
Arrange the bacon slices in an 18-20 cm springform cake tin, starting from the centre of the base, then lay them up around the sides of the tin and let the excess hang over the edge. Fill the tin with the stuffing mix, pressing it in well and levelling the top.
Fold the bacon over the top of the stuffing, gathering and twisting the ends loosely in the centre. Scatter over the remaining walnuts, pressing them in slightly.
Set the tin on a baking sheet to catch any juices that escape, then bake for 40-45 mins until the top is golden. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then remove onto a serving plate and scatter with parsley. Cut into wedges to serve.