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Serves: 4
Prep time: 25 minutes

So hands up who doesn’t love Beef Wellington? And another show of hands please for those that love a good sausage roll? So what happens when you combine the two? You get this damn good sausage Wellington that’s what. And it really is a spectacle. It makes an everyday ingredient into something you would be proud to place as a table centerpiece, but it’s a fraction of the price of a Beef Wellington. Essentially it’s a glammed up jumbo sausage roll and served with pools of onion gravy it makes a terrific Sunday lunch alternative! I am so excited about this recipe as it’s truly scrummy!

400g sausage meat
5 sprigs of sage
1 onion, peeled and grated
2 apples, peeled and grated
1 free-range egg
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 banana shallots, peeled and finely chopped
5 field or portabello mushrooms, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a few sprigs of thyme
12 slices of Parma ham
flour, for dusting
1 portion of ruff puff pastry
2 free-range egg yolks

In a bowl mix together the sausagemeat, sage, grated onion, grated apple, salt and pepper. Shape it into a giant sausage, that’s about 20 cm long and 8cm thick. Put it in the fridge while you get on with the rest.

Heat the oil in the pan and then throw in the shallots and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and fry for 10 minutes or until they have softened and gone brown. In the last minute of cooking, add the garlic and thyme. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Lay out a double layer of cling film that is about 40 cm long. Then lay another double layer of cling film above it, overlapping the other sheets by about 10 cm so you have a large grid of film. Lay 6 slices of the Parma ham along the centre, overlapping each slice with the next. Lay the next 6 slices in the same way above this layer to elongate the layer of ham.

Spread the mushrooms all over the ham. Place the giant sausage at the base of the ham and mushrooms, then with the help of the cling film roll the sausage in the ham so that the ham is wrapped around the sausage. Wrap the cling film round the sausage and roll it as tight as you can, tying the ends like a cracker. Pop this in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200^oC/gas 6. Dust the kitchen surface with flour. Remove the pastry from the fridge and lay onto the floured surface and roll out into a rectangle measuring 40cm x 30cm. Unravel the ham-wrapped sausage from its cling film making sure you do not unravel the ham. With the widest side of pastry towards you, lay the sausage at the bottom of the pastry. Carefully roll the wrapped sausage in the pastry, tucking in the edges underneath. Trim off any excess on the sides and tuck the pastry under. With the excess pastry you can cut out some shapes – traditionally you would have leaves but I think stars look great.

With a pastry brush, brush the egg yolk over the pastry. Place your shapes on top of the pastry, and then glaze these. Pop the wellington in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the pastry has become golden and crisp. Leave to rest for 15 minutes before serving.