Italian Sausage Puff Pockets

Italian sausages remind me of carnivals and street fairs. I can't resist the enticing aroma which guides me through the crowds like a road map to the sausage stand.  I will happily take a sausage piled high with onions and peppers and smother it in yellow mustard. YUM! When I make Italian sausages at home I dress them up with a little more than just yellow mustard. I doctor up some red sauce with a few flavor enhancments and let the sausages, peppers and onions go for a swim before stuffing some good quality sub rolls with all that sloppy goodness.

If you follow the blog, you know I stock pile puff pastry, crusty bread and focaccia rolls in my freezer. Each one awaiting their chance to be selected for a meal. I sware I hear little cheers everytime the freezer door opens and sounds of sadness when the door closes.

The other night I felt like doing a "happy hour" style dinner to test out some recipe change ups. As you may have guessed one of the recipes we toyed with was the Italian Sausages. I knew my Italian sausage recipe was a good one and I couldn't imagine pairing it with puff pastry would be wrong.

I deemed this recipe a winner when my son ate one and liked it! He would never eat my Italian sausage subs. He didn't even pick out the peppers and onions.

This recipe makes about 14 puff pockets.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE PUFF POCKETS:

1/2 batch (or 1 pound) of Puff Pastry

16 ounces of sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed

2  large red pepper, sliced thin

1 sweet onion, sliced thin

Splash of white wine*

1 egg, mixed with a tablespoon of water for an egg wash

About 1 cup of dipping sauce, see below for recipe

In a large skillet, sautee peppers and onions in a tablespoon of olive oil, about 3-4 minutes. You want to cooked veggies to still hav a crunch.

Remove the peppers and onions from the pan and add the sausage.

Make sure all the sausage is cooked through and add a splash of wine and scrape up all the delicious brown bits.

*PREPARATION TIP: I normally don't have white wine lying around the house. I am a red wine drinker, for which I have a ton hanging around the house. If I find that I only need a splash of white wine, I will most likely use the dry vermouth. It has a long shelf life, unlike white wine,  and a nice flavor when used in cooking.

Remove the sausage from the pan and let it cool. Refrigerate the sasuage and peppers for at least 1 hour or overnight.

PREPARATION TIP: If have a stock pile of puff pastry in the freezer as do I, thaw what you need in the refrigerator overnight.  I highly recommend making your own puff pastry. I used 1/2 batch of homemade pastry for this recipe. I promise it's not hard to make and the final product is well worth the effort. Click here for the recipe for puff pastry.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll out the puff pastry to about 1/4 inch thick roughly 13 x 15 inches.

Trim around the perimeter to give you straight edges. Then slice about 12 squares. Any extra dough will be rolled out to give you 2 more pockets.

Turn one of the squares to mimic a diamond. Add a heaping spoonful of filling to the center of the diamond.

Fold the left and the right side of the dough into the middle and seal it with some egg wash.

Continue this process until all pockets are finished. Place them on the prepared baking sheet.

Brush egg wash over the tops and bake for 20-25 minutes or until light brown.

PREPARATION TIP: Make these pockets a day ahead of time. Store them on a plate lined with parchment paper and sealed with plastic wrap. When you are ready to bake, simply pull them from the refrigerator, give each an egg wash and bake.

For the DIPPING SAUCE:

1 cup of your favorite red sauce, click here for our favorite

1 tablespoon of yellow mustard

A few dashes of worcestershire sauce

A few dashes of hot sauce

In a small saucepan, mix together all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Give it a taste and serve next to the puff pockets.