Pie: Sausage, Apple & Sage

Recently, I bought a copy of "Pie" by Angela Boggiano (see Amazon link to the right). This is an awesome book. Well, it is, if like me, you are somewhat addicted to pie.

It was test-driven for last nights dinner and officially gets the thumbs up (so much that I've added an affiliate link to Amazon to try and sell it to you all!).

I even made shortcrust pastry with only a minor adjustment to her recipe. In brief:

Mix 250g of plain white flour with 50g of butter (leave this out to soften for a bit first) and 50g of "good baking margerine" e.g stork (you're supposed to use lard, but firstly I have enough around my middle as is and secondly I forgot to buy any). Rub mixture together until it goes breadcrumby and is soft. Then stir in 2-3 tbsps of water a little bit at a time with a knife. As soon as the dough sticks together, knead it into a ball and let it rest in the fridge while you make the filling.

Extract the meat from half a dozen sausages and set aside. Chop two onions and fry gently on a low heat with a good dollop of olive oil, until they start to soften. Add the sausage meat and cook for a few minutes. Chop and add two small apples - and switch off the heat. Mix in some dried sage (or add fresh sage at the start - I only had dried available), plus a couple of tbsps of creme fraich and one of mustard.

Thats it! Roll out your pastry, assemble the pie in a shape of your choice - in the original recipe it is a plate pie, I made a sort of deep dish one because we're a bit limited on pie-baking-equipment at the moment. Bake for 40 mins (or so) at 200 degrees. Eat. Eat more. Feel a bit fat and wonder how you ate so much pie.

Can't wait to try another recipe out..!