Sausage Plait with Sage and Onion (Picnic Pie)

Serves	6
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	35 minutes
Total time	50 minutes
Allergy	Wheat
Meal type	Lunch, Main Dish, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
Occasion	Barbecue, Birthday Party, Casual Party, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving
Region	British
By author	Karen S Burns-Booth

A family favourite, this Sausage Plait with Sage and Onion is not only great picnic food but makes a tasty family supper dish, as well as being perfect for high tea. Use high quality (high meat content) sausages, and if fresh sage is not available, use 1 teaspoon of dried sage in its place. Can be frozen at the pre-bakes stage or after being cooked.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion , peeled, halved and sliced
50g fresh white breadcrumbs
10 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
salt and pepper
400g high meat-content sausages , skinned (I use Lincolnshire sausages with minimum 75% meat)
250g puff pastry

Note

A family favourite, this Sausage Plait with Sage and Onion is not only great picnic food but makes a tasty family supper dish, as well as being perfect for high tea. Use high quality (high meat content) sausages, and if fresh sage is not available, use 1 teaspoon of dried sage in its place. Can be frozen at the pre-bakes stage or after being cooked.

Directions

Step 1	Fry the diced onion in the oil until softened. Tip into a bowl, add the bread crumbs and fresh sage, mix well, season and cool.
Step 2	Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 6. Mix the sausage meat with the sage and onion breadcrumb mix. Roll out the pastry to a 35 x 30cm rectangle and put on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
Step 3	Form the meat mixture into a long sausage shape and put in the centre of the pastry, leaving 2cm at each end. Cut 1.5cm strips away from the sausage meat along the length of the pastry. Fold in the ends and then alternate strips of the pastry up and over the sausage meat, crossing over each other neatly. Trim the excess pastry and glaze with milk if desired, Bake for 35 minutes until crisp and golden.
Step 4	Serve warm or cold, cut into slices with salad, pickles, chutney, mustard or as a family meal with seasonal vegetables and potatoes.