Sausage plait

Poor man's Beef Wellington or luxury sausage roll? You decide!

400g pack pork and apple sausages - about 6 fat sausages

1 roasted red pepper from a jar, patted dry with kitchen paper

1 large egg

½ tsp chilli flakes

2 tbsp tomato purée

flour, for dusting

250g ready-made puff pastry

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (mine's a fan). Line a baking tray (so much easier to wash up than a greased tray. 

2. Remove the meat from the sausage skins by snipping off the ends, then squeezing the sausage meat into a bowl. It's really quite fun.

3. Cut the pepper into small pieces. Break the egg into the cup, beat with a fork, and save 2 tbsp for glazing. Add the red pepper and remaining egg to the sausage meat with the chilli flakes and tomato purée. Mix - I recommend using your hands because once you've squeezed the sausages you're in the mood for some mess.

4. Sprinkle some flour on the work surface and roll out the pastry to about 30 x 30cm. Put the pastry on the lined baking tray.

5. Spoon the filling down the middle of the pastry in a sausage shape – leave a little gap at the top and bottom (about 3cm).

6. Cut the pastry at a slight diagonal, on either side of the filling, into 1.5cm strips, the same number each side. Brush the pastry all over with most of the saved egg.

7. Tuck the top and bottom edges of the pastry over the filling. Now we're making a faux plait - starting at the top, lay the pastry strips over the filling, taking one from each side, to cross like a plait. Now brush the top all over with the last of the egg. 

8. Bake for 35-40 mins or until golden.

I served mine with baked beans because I felt like sausages and beans should be brought together once more. I considered adding them to the filling but thought it might be too wet.

This isn't an original recipe by me - I got the bones of it from my mother in law's recipe collection, I believe she tore a page from a cooking magazine some time ago with it - and because of that I'm not sure where it's from.