Sausage and tomato pie
This puff pastry sausage pie is quick and easy to put together and will be a winner with the whole family. If you have a rectangular roasting tin or baking dish, use it to cook the sausages as the pastry sheet will fit neatly on top avoiding any fussy shaping and trimming.
This recipe is part of a budget family batch cook meal plan. It is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard.
The batch-cooked tomato sauce makes enough for this recipe and a pasta bake. If you're not following the meal plan you'll need to halve the tomato sauce ingredients (or freeze the remaining half to use in other recipes).
Each serving provides 972 kcal, 31.2g protein, 68.1g carbohydrate (of which 17.4g sugars), 60.3g fat (of which 24.7g saturates), 15.7g fibre and 3.05g salt.
Ingredients
For the batch-cooked tomato sauce
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- 500g/1lb 2oz passata
- 2 tsp sugar or honey (optional)
- salt and ground black pepper
For the sausage and tomato pie
- 454g/1lb sausages (about 8)
- 500g/1lb 2oz carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm/¾in chunks
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- ½ of the batch-cooked tomato sauce (about 600g/1lb 5oz cooked weight), see above
- 375g/13oz ready-made puff pastry sheet
- 1 tbsp milk
- 300g/10½oz frozen peas, to serve
Method
To make the batch-cooked tomato sauce, heat the oil in a large lidded saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5–10 minutes, until they have softened and are just starting to turn translucent. Add the chopped tomatoes and passata and season generously with salt and pepper. Give everything a good stir and put the lid on, slightly ajar, and turn the heat down to low. Cook for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick. Set aside.
To make the pie, preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Put the sausages in a pie dish or small deep roasting tin (about 20x30cm/8x12in). Cut each sausage into about 3 or 4 chunks (use scissors to do this straight into the dish). Add the carrot chunks and drizzle over the oil.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until the carrots are almost cooked. Remove the pie dish from the oven, pour over the half of the tomato sauce and give everything a good stir. Set aside the remaining tomato sauce for the other recipe in this meal plan.
Carefully unroll the puff pastry and place on top of the pie filling. You will need to work quickly here as the hot pie dish will start to melt the pastry! Also, be careful of your fingers. Tuck the pastry in around the edges of the dish. Brush the top of the pastry with the milk and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes until golden.
Meanwhile, cook the peas in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 3–4 minutes. Serve the pie in slices with the peas alongside.
Recipe Tips
If you have more time, cook the sauce on a low heat for up to 1 hour as it will improve the more it is cooked.
Tinned tomatoes can taste a little sour sometimes. If you have some sugar or honey in your cupboard, add 2 teaspoons at the end of the cooking time to add a little sweetness.
Before you add the tomato sauce to the sausages and carrots, you may want to drain off some liquid if lots has come out of the sausages during cooking.