Sausage and Spring Onion Pie

Pie...Galette...Rustic Tart...I guess this dish could be called any of those things. Let's just say it's a yummy filling of Italian sausage, fresh spring onions & melted cheese in a tender, flakey crust. Sound good? Well, it was!

I used the spring onions we picked up at the Mpls Farmer's Market this weekend. Spring onions are usually a little bigger & have lightly rounder bulbs than scallions or green onions. They also can have more of a bite to them which means they held their own against the spicy sausage. If you can't get spring onions, green onions will be a fine substitute.

For the cheese in this pie we were lucky enough to recieve a wedge of Fol Epi from Ile de France Cheese*. They let us pick which cheese to try & we picked one we'd never tasted before. Fol Epi is a semi-soft, cow's milk cheese that reminded us of a Swiss cheese but a little milder taste. It was really good for lunch on ham sandwiches, perfect in this pie & also good just for snacking. It melted beautifully & would probably make a rocking grilled cheese. We just love getting to try cheese that is new to us.

Sausage & Spring Onion Pie

Crust

2/3 c all-purpose flour
1/8 t kosher salt
4 T (2 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks (if you use salted butter leave out the salt)
1 T + 1 t cold water

Put the flour & salt into a food processor & pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter & pulse until the mixture is the texture of a course meal. Sprinkle in the water & pulse. Test the dough to see if it holds together by pinching it. If it is too dry add more water 1 teaspoon at a time until it reaches the right texture. Form the dough into two balls. Flatten the balls into discs. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for 1/2 hour

Filling

1/2 T olive oil
4 oz bulk hot Italian sausage
4 large spring onions, chopped, try to keep the white & light green parts separate from the more tender dark green parts (I ended up with between 1 1/2 & 2 cups)
1 egg, beaten
2 oz Fol Epi cheese, grated
melted butter

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage plus the white & light green parts of the onions. Sauté until the sausage is cooked & the onion is very tender. Add the darker green parts of the onion & continue to cook until tender. Remove from the heat & let cool to almost room temperature. Once cooled mix in the egg & cheese (if you wish save a little of the cheese to sprinkle on the top).

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Roll the dough discs out to about 8" circles 1/8" thick. Place the circles on a baking sheet that is either covered with a silicone pad or greased. Spoon half of the the filling into the middle of each circle leaving about 1 to 1 1/2 inch border. Fold the border over the filling, pleating as you go along. Brush the crust with some melted butter. Sprinkle some cheese over the showing filling if you saved some for this purpose.

Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 F & cook another 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown & the filling has set. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

2 servings.

*Ile de France sent us cheese to sample but we were not given any other consideration to write about or review it.

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