Frugal Food: Sausage Bread with Mozzarella and Salad

 

Lorena at Food Revolution runs a monthly event called Frugal Food.  The idea is to create a meal for two (not including dessert or drinks) for a given amount (seven dollars or less this month), and featuring a specified ingredient of her choice. This month's ingredient is mozzarella. This event appeals to me because it reminds me of an old British TV programme called "Ready, Steady, Cook", in which two teams vie to produce the best meal using mystery ingredients  provided by a pair of audience members. These ingredients must cost five pounds (about ten dollars) or less. Each team comprises a chef and the person(s) who selected the ingredients. They have twenty minutes to come up with a finished meal. It's a hell of a challenge, especially when someone selects hopelessly mismatched or inappropriate ingredients, yet it's often astonishing how impressive the finished meals turn out to be.

There is no twenty minute time limit on this challenge which is just as well since I'm not the speediest person ever to blunder around a kitchen and also because the recipe I selected takes about half an hour to prepare plus a further half hour to finish cooking. I pinched one of Ann's Christmas favourites - sausage bread - and paired it with a simple salad to make a complete and tasty meal which features healthy greens, carbs (the bread), meat, cheese (the essential ingredient), a bit of veg (onion and green pepper) and a whole pile of mouth-watering savoury goodness. Whenever Ann has made this for the family at Christmas it usually only takes about half an hour for two whole loaves of the stuff to disappear.

 

This sausage bread is made in the form of a ring-shaped loaf, and the quantities I give below are enough to make one loaf, which is sufficient for four generous portions (we froze half of the loaf). I have therefore halved the cost of the ingredients below in order to ensure they come to less than seven dollars and, happily, they do. The cost breakdown for these halved amounts was as follows:

0.80    Bread dough
0.70    Sausage meat
0.20    Onion
0.25    Green Pepper
0.25    Eggs
1.25    Shredded Mozzarella      
1.00    Salad ingredients

4.45

Bargain! I could have added some tomatoes and stuff to the salad, I suppose, or maybe had some green beans on the side, but it isn't really necessary. The sausage bread is surprisingly filling and very flavourful so it really doesn't need much to go with it beyond a light, fresh salad. Anyway, to business:

Sausage Bread
Serves 4

1 "piece" of frozen bread dough. Round our way this comes in packs of three and I guess a "piece" is about 12 ounces of dough
1.5 lbs sausage meat (a mix of hot and regular is good)
6 oz shredded mozzarella
Half a large white onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Salt, black pepper, dried sage, dried oregano to taste. (I recommend you go easy on the salt and use maybe half a tsp each of the herbs.)
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
2 beaten eggs: one for the filling, one for brushing the finished loaf
A little grated parmesan for topping
Mixed green salad (enough for 4). Add mushrooms, tomatoes, whatever you see fit. I just added a few sliced crimini mushrooms.

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet, fry the onions and green pepper for about five minutes or until the onion is softened. Add the sausage meat, break it up, mix it around. Add the herbs, chilli flakes and seasoning. Do be careful not to use too much salt: this tends to be quite naturally salty. When the meat is just cooked through tip the whole lot into a colander and drain well. You don't want the mixture to be soggy or your loaf will be a sad and gloopy thing. Put the mixture into a large bowl and add one beaten egg and the mozzarella. Mix well.

Now comes the fun part. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 18" by 8". This takes some application with flour and rolling pin. Be brutal. It will want to spring back into its original lumpy shape. Do not permit this. Accept no nonsense. Take a large spoon and lay the sausage mixture evenly along the centre of the dough.  Put it right up to one of the short edges but leave maybe half an inch free at the other edge.  Now gather up the long edges in the centre, enclosing the meat cosily, pinch firmly together and fold the pinch over; pinch again to seal. Keep doing this out to both edges until you have neatly encased the whole length of filling. Roll the thing so that the pinched seam is on (what will become) the inside, then form it into a ring. Feed one end into the other (the 'full' end going into the one you left a bit of a gap in) and firmly pinch together so that the join is sealed right round, then carefully transfer it to a lightly oiled baking sheet.

Let it rise for about 40 mins (not essential, really- Ann says nobody in her family ever bothers). Brush with beaten egg, grate parmesan over the top then bake at 350 degrees until golden brown (about 30 minutes). Serve in slices, piping hot so that the mozzarella is lovely and runny.

Comments

[Manggy]

Awesome! Now spend $2.55 for dessert :)
It's always the dairy products that push the budget over the edge, isn't it? The price of a refined palate! (I say this because you could have easily shredded some, er, Velveeta or cheaper substitute.)

[giz]

Yowzer - I absolutely have to try this one - it looks fantastic and really unusual. Well done you.

[Karyn]

Food spending is something I have to work on. I'm fairly sure that my meals themselves are inexpensive, but I really need to do something about my not-so-cheap love affair with Greek yogurt and novelty-colored vegetables.

I like the ring bread idea. It's like pizza in a tube.

[katy]

oh my gosh. stuffed bread is absolutely going on my to-do recipe list! this looks just incredible.

also, on the 20 minute rule -- what is the point of cooking fast? i mean, we are all cooking because we enjoy it, not just to get dinner on the table, you know? pretty much my favorite thing to do (on the weekends, at least) is spend several hours preparing various parts of a really good meal -- preferrably with good music on, and a glass of wine in hand for the last hour or so! trying to squash that all into 20 minutes would totally stress me out. :-)

[Psychgrad]

This looks good. Plus it covers all of the major food groups in one bite.

[Susan from Food Blogga]

One of my husband's all time favorite foods is his mom's sausage bread. It too was made with egg. I've tried making it a couple times myself, and it never came quite as good as hers, though Jeff is too sweet to ever say it anyway. Yours looks beautiful. I love the way the loaf puffed out and the exterior got so crispy.

[Jack]

Manggy - I actually would have spent something on an extra side dish had I known it would work out so cheap. But this really does make a filling meal by itself, so I decided not to. Velveeta though? Eww!

Giz - Thanks. Do try it. It's fun to make and I guarantee it'll be really popular. And disappear really fast!

Karyn - It was interesting cooking to a tight budget. Of course when I was younger I used to do it all the time but in my old... I mean middle... age, I've kinda got out of the habit. I suppose this is a sort-of calzone-like creation, but the filling tastes more like a savoury pie thing than anything you'd generally find on - or in - a pizza.

Katy - I'm right with you on the speed thing... and the cooking with a glass of wine in hand! I don't like to be rushed.

Psychgrad - It is good. But maybe a little bit sinful...

Susan - This version of sausage bread is fairly easy. The only tricky part is forming the ring and as long as you stick to it with patience even that isn't so bad.

[Tartelette]

I am loving this, especially for hurried friday nights before my husband goes to play music. He needs substance and I need easy and cheap :)

[JEP]

What an amazing photo! Fantastic post, too!

[anna]

I used to love watching reruns of "Ready, Steady, Cook" on PBS when I was a kid - haven't thought of it in years. I'll let you know when I attempt my veggie sausage version of this lovely recipe!

[Zenchef]

I take the sausage, the bread and the mozzarella... you can keep the salad! :-)

[Scott]

I tried this last weekend and it came out very nicely. The only thing I had a problem with was the moisture level after I added the egg and cheese. Some of the moisture helped to bind the dough, but I had some sections where I had breaks in the dough that didn't mend too well. I loved this though, and I think I'll make another one next weekend.

[fivecutekids]

My family LOVED this recipe. I used Rhodes Frozen Bread dough it is easy to work with and tastes close to homemade. Thank you for sharing.