Today we had some nice flatbreads left over from our Prawns with Caesar Salad recipe, and rather than waste them, we decided to fill them for supper. Emily had seen some great-looking sausages the previous day, and from that this idea was born! Meaty, spicy sausage, sweet juicy corn, zingy fresh tomato, and nutty Emmental – yum! We’ll be making these again!
Our flatbreads today were interesting too. Emily has been doing some food exclusion trials for a suspected intolerance, and at the moment she’s testing gluten. So we’ve been experimenting with gluten-free products. So far we’ve tried two excellent gluten-free breads; some great gluten-free oatcakes; pasta where you couldn’t tell the difference; and these flatbreads which are actually nicer than the gluten ones Estella had with the Caesar! We’ll do a post about this soon. The sausages themselves are also gluten & fructan free, making this whole dish suitable for coeliacs or anyone with a fructan intolerance. But even if you’re not, they simply taste good!
We made things even easier & speedier for ourselves, this being a Simple Supper, by using pre-grated Emmental (melts really nicely). We also baked, rather than fried, the sausages, which is largely a ‘stick them in and forget about them’ method. And the flatbreads themselves only take a few minutes. We spotted some interesting ‘marble’ tomatoes in the shops too, which tasted tangy & slightly tropical, a nice match with the spicy sausages.
The only slightly time-consuming part of this simple dish is cooking the sausages. But even this only takes about 20 minutes of minimal intervention. You could also cook them ahead, as we did today. To bake them, place on a baking tray – we grease it slightly to prevent sticking – and cook in a hot oven for the time stated on the packet. Today we cooked ours for just under 20 minutes at 175C fan.
Jake sticks his nose in
Contrary to much popular belief, you don’t need to prick sausages before baking them. In fact, not pricking them keeps them juicier.
Halfway through the cooking time, turn the sausages over so they brown evenly.
Meanwhile, slice the tomatoes. Ours today were small cherry tomatoes so we just cut them in half. If yours are larger, cut into medium slices. The idea is to make them (relatively!) easy to fit into the flatbreads.
Drain the sweetcorn, then dry it on some kitchen paper. You don’t want the filling in your sausage flatbreads to be too wet or they will go soggy.
When the sausages are done, allow them to cool slightly, then slice them.
Your preparation is done, and you are ready to heat and fill your sausage flatbreads.
The flatbreads are nicest heated through, and the cheese is also nicer slightly melted. First heat the flatbreads in the oven – check the timing on the packet, but most need about 2 minutes at around 180C. Place on a baking tray and sprinkle with a little water, then put into a pre-heated oven.
Meanwhile, mix the sweetcorn with the sliced sausage. When the flatbreads are heated through, remove from the oven and sprinkle generously with the grated cheese. Return to the hot oven until the cheese is just melting.
Jake sticks his nose in
We prefer the cheese just very slightly melted, so it retains some texture. But fully melt it if you prefer. We used Emmental today, which is nutty and melts well, but any firm cheese, or a mixture, will work nicely. Or try with some blue cheese instead!
When the cheese has slightly melted, a minute or two, remove the flatbreads from the oven. Spoon the sausage mixture generously over one half of each flatbread, leaving the other half plain. Top the sausage with some tomato. Now fold the plain side of each flatbread over the filling side, and press down firmly so the fold holds in place. Some filling will still likely drop out when you plate the sausage flatbreads, but these are by their nature on the rustic side!
Plate your sausage flatbreads and serve. We made two flatbreads per person, which was a very generous portion. One would be enough for a lighter meal or for lunch. Our verdict on our new invention? Delicious! Would we make them again? Definitely! But would we make any tweaks? Yes, next time we’d add even more cheese, or perhaps do a mix of Emmental & cheddar.
Enjoy you super, speedy sausage flatbreads!
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