Recipe

Festive Italian Stuffing

A delightful festive stuffing full of authentic Italian flavours and bound together using sourdough loaf. Just perfect for that festive lunch or dinner. So easy to make and bake and especially good prepared ahead of time, frozen, defrosted and re-heated on the day of serving. See Jules tips for advice on how to manage this. 

6-8
30 minutes
40 minutes
180ºC

Ingredients

  • 450g sourdough bread
    - cut into 5cm pieces, day old
  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin oil
  • 450g mild pork or spicy Italian sausage
    - skin casings removed, cut small
  • Flavourings
  • 1 red onion
    - finely chopped
  • 30g flat-leaf parsley
    - chopped
  • 1 tbsp fresh rosemary 
    - no stems, chopped
  • 1 tbsp fresh or dried sage
    - chopped
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • Pinch of sea salt
    - or more, to taste
  • 400ml vegetable stock
  • 1 egg
    - lightly whisked

Instructions

  • 01 Preheat oven to 180ºC.
  • Cook sourdough and sausages:
  • 02 Place the cubed bread on a baking sheet specifically at one end, drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil. At the other end of the tray add all the small pieces of sausage. Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the sourdough cubes are dried and toasted and the sausages nicely cooked. They should be all be golden brown. Remove ALL to a very large mixing bowl.
  • Prepare flavourings:
  • 03 Place onion, herbs, garlic into a food processor. Pulse until chopped. Melt butter in a large pan, add chopped onion and herbs. Soften. Add all the remaining ingredients, a dash of salt and pepper, if you like. Sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are softened. Remove from the heat. Add the browned sausage, toasted bread. Add half the stock. With a large spoon, gently stir the ingredients together. Now add in the whisked egg. Gradually add the remaining stock little at a time until the stuffing is wet. With each addition, gently stir and pat the stuffing ingredients together. Take care not to over mix it, you’re just combining it all together. The goal is to have it wet, but not over soaked and liquid.
  • Assemble:
  • 04 When the stock is soaked in and combined, spoon the stuffing into a baking dish or a lined 23 x 30cm loaf tin (using non stick baking paper). Lightly oil a few bay leaves for the top. Place in a preheated oven and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until it's heated through and golden brown on top. Check it at about 25 minutes and if it seems to be browning too much, cover with foil paper.
  • If wishing to freeze:
  • 05 If freezing ahead of time remove from the oven after 25 minutes as the final 20 will be done when re-heating. Allow to become cold before covering with cling film and tin foil. Add a label and place in the freezer. Defrost overnight before cooking the next day.
  • Serve:
  • 06 Take to the table hot removed from the tin, cut into slices.

Notes

I like to make this stuffing way ahead of time, so I recommend that you half cook it, chill, cover and FREEZE. Defrosting on the day needed with a good ‘cook through’ for 30 minutes. I recommend to use pork sausage but equally as delicious when turkey, chicken, or vegan sausage are used.

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