Sausage rolls are right up there with Scotch eggs on the comfort food / general amazingness scale of British snacks; there is no time when they aren’t appropriate. It’s February now, so you can stop pretending you’re still following your New Year’s resolution. Dump the carrot sticks and bring a sausage roll into work. You’ll love yourself for it.

You can easily make mini versions of these, follow the instructions but instead of chopping each pastry length into 4, cut it into 16 small bite size pieces. Easy peasy.

Sausage rolls with chilli, feta and sage

Quantities: Makes 16 large (or 64 bitesize)

Timings: 1 ½ hours (25 mins hands-on, 30 mins chilling, 25-25 mins baking)

Kitchen Stuff: Baking tray x 2, mixing bowl, a pastry brush comes in handy

Ingredients:

1 white onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp oregano
A small bunch of sage leaves, chopped (plus extra to fry as a garnish if you wish)
2 tsp chilli flakes
200g feta
500g sausage meat (or plain sausages, you can squeeze them out of their skins!)
2 x 320g packs of pre rolled all butter puff pastry
1 medium egg, beaten
Rapeseed oil for frying

Method:

Heat the over to 200°C

1. Heat a little oil in a pan and add the chopped onion. Fry for a few mins until the onion is starting to soften and add the garlic. Remove from the heat and add to a medium mixing bowl, allow to cool for 5 mins.

2. When the onion and garlic is cool, crumble in the feta and add the sausage meat, oregano, chopped sage and chilli flakes, then season generously with salt and pepper. Using your hands, smush the sausage meat together, making sure it’s all mixed together and the flavours are evenly distributed. Using a knife, divide the sausage meat into quarters in the bowl.

3. On a chopping board (that can fit in your fridge), unroll one of the pastry sheets and slice in two lengthways. Take a quarter of the sausage meat and put it in a 3cm channel down the length of one pastry half, just off centre, leaving a 1-2cm gap of pastry at the edge. Brush the wider side of pastry with beaten egg and fold over to encase the sausage meat, pressing to seal the pastry lip. Press a fork along the lip, creating a crimped pattern to seal the pastry further. Put the rolls on the board in the fridge and chill for 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling.

4. Once chilled, use a sharp knife to cut the long sausage rolls into 4 (or 16 if you are doing mini sausage rolls) then chill on the board for a further 20 minutes. Prepare a baking sheet with baking paper. Remove the sausage rolls from the fridge when they are firm, and brush with beaten egg to glaze. Pop them in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden and the sausage meat is cooked through, turning the baking tray around halfway through for even cooking. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before eating (it’s worth it, don’t burn your mouth). They keep well for 2-3 days in the fridge.

If you would like to crisp up some sage leaves to garnish like the photos, heat a couple of tbsp rapeseed oil in a small frying pan until hot and drop the sage leaves in, letting them sizzle for about 30 seconds until bright and crisp, before transferring to a plate lined with absorbent kitchen paper.

*This recipe was inspired by a recipe in the the December 2016 issue of Delicious Magazine*