Today I present pizza rolls filled with a staple of Neapolitan cuisine: sausages and broccoli rabe. This is a rustic recipe from master Gino Sorbillo. These rolls are truly amazing, delicious, perfect for appetizers, as a starter, or on picnics. By doubling the dough quantities, we can create more “rolls” to fill differently for rich and varied buffets.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 4 Hours
- Portions: 20 rolls
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Milk (lactose-free also works)
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1 tsp Fine salt
- 1 tsp Fresh yeast
- 2.2 lbs Broccoli rabe (already cleaned)
- 4 Sausages
- 1 clove Garlic
- to taste Extra virgin olive oil
- to taste Coarse salt
- 1 tbsp Very soft butter (lactose-free also works)
- 1 glass Water
Preparation
Sift the flour in a large bowl. Add the fresh yeast dissolved in a little water (or milk) taken from the ingredients and mix.
Then add all the remaining water and milk, the fine salt, and finally, the very soft butter in small pieces. Knead until you obtain a soft, smooth, and well-bonded dough. Cover and let it rise until doubled in size.
Meanwhile, wash the Neapolitan broccoli rabe and let them drain.
Heat a very large non-stick pan well. When it is very hot, place the sausages and let them brown evenly over high heat for one minute; then transfer them to a plate.
In the same pan, brown a clove of garlic in two generous tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. When the garlic starts sizzling, add all the broccoli rabe, cover, and let them wilt for about ten minutes, keeping the flame low. After about ten minutes, season the broccoli rabe with coarse salt, but don’t overdo it.
Add 1/2 glass of water, stir them, cover, and let them cook over very low heat. After about another 20 minutes of cooking, add the coarsely crumbled sausages and let cooking continue. Stir occasionally; the broccoli rabe must become very tender. At the end, turn off and let them cool.
Let’s resume the dough. When the dough has doubled in volume, sprinkle a work surface with some semolina or all-purpose flour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until you get a kind of rectangle that is not too thin (the ideal thickness is about 1/4 inch).
Fill the pastry (on one side or along the entire pastry, leaving the edges free) with the broccoli rabe and sausages perfectly drained from the cooking liquid.
Roll the pastry tightly to obtain a cylinder. Cut the cylinder into slices, finger-width apart, with a sharp knife. Using a spatula, place the rolls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake immediately, for about 20/25 minutes at most in a static oven with baking from the bottom only at mid-height; or about 20 minutes, static oven with simultaneous bottom/top baking.
Another idea. Another method to make the rolls (actually more convenient and easier) is to close the cylinder into a ring and only slice it after baking. In this case, the ring should be left to cool slightly before cutting, to avoid the dough, still too soft and brittle, from breaking. Pizza rolls with broccoli rabe and sausages are exquisite hot or cold; moreover, they can be prepared well in advance and reheated as needed.
