Parmesan sausage bread

On Saturday, I was in the mood for some sausage bread. I haven’t made this much recently. I used to make sausage bread a lot around the holidays, but I’ve seemed to have forgotten about it. 

On Saturday, I kicked it up with the addition of lots of imported Italian Parmesan cheese. This is easy to make. You just need a clean counter to roll it out. Other than that, there isn’t much more work, than normal bread. Here’s how I put this together.

3 cups of unbleached flour

1 cup of white whole wheat flour

1 tsp. of salt

1 tsp. of sugar

2 tbs. of olive oil

2 tbs. of instant yeast

2 cups of lukewarm water

1 cup of grated Italian Parmesan

1 lb. of Italian sausage

1 clove of garlic

1 cup of shaved Italian Parmesan

Corn meal

Preparation

Place the flours, salt, sugar, olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Add the water and bring the dough together with dough hooks. You may have to adjust with a little extra flour or water; I never measure this stuff. Knead the dough for about a minute, and set it aside in a warm place, to let it rise. 

While that is rising, heat a small skillet, and brown the Italian sausages. As they start to brown, break them up. Smash and mince the garlic, and add that to the sausage. Once it is browned nicely, turn off the heat. Relax with your book, while the dough rises.

After about forty five minutes, knead the dough again. Set it on a clean, floured counter. Using your hands first, then a rolling pin, work the dough into a sheet, almost three feet long, and about a foot and a half wide. Add the browned sausage and garlic to the dough, but leave the outer two inches uncovered. Sprinkle on the shaved Parmesan cheese.

Now, comes the fun part. Fold the outer two inch edge of dough over the sausage, on each side. Next, start at the end closest to you, and gently roll the dough up like it was a carpet. Sprinkle a baking sheet with corn meal, and carefully set the rolled up dough on it, seam side down. Brush the loaf with the fat from the sausage pan. Let it rise for twenty minutes.

Bake your loaf at 380º for about forty five minutes. If you aren’t sure, give it five or ten minutes more. When I took mine out, and looked at the bottom, I put it back in for another ten minutes. Place the bread on a rack to cool for at least ten minutes before slicing.

Serving

We served our sausage bread, with lots of butter, next to Roman style broiled pork chops. We also had some tortellini sausage soup, and lots of beer to round out the dinner.