Recipe: Slightly Yuppie-fied Stuffing

This recipe has two points of origin - sparks that caused me to create this dish.  One was practical.  We'd bought some cured sausage for a camping event we attended.  It didn't get eaten and I wanted to use up as much of it as I could - there isn't a whole lot of space in my refrigerator.  The second was - well, I guess you could say whimsical.  I wanted stuffing.  Yes, the stuff you get for Thanksgiving.  I'd been craving it for a few days.  I would have preferred my family recipe, but I wanted stuffing so bad I would have settled for Stove Top if I could get it. 

I used the family recipe as a base for this dish.  Instead of the fresh sausage, I used 3/4 stick of an Abruzzese sausage.  I used 3/4 stick because I'd eaten the other 1/4 while camping.  It's a cured sausage not unlike chorizo, so if you can't find the one you can use the other.  I'd bought some ciabatta on sale, but couldn't get much out of it in terms of stale bread.  I had to make up the rest with store-bought breadcrumbs, which wasn't the end of the world.  I didn't have stock of any kind on hand, so I used white wine to moisten the stuffing.  Finally, since one of the other things I wanted to use up was boursin, I used half a round of garlic and herb boursin. 

The result was actually pretty darned tasty, if I do say so myself.  I like my grandmother's recipe better - best of all in fact - but this was still good.  It also satisfied my craving for stuffing, which is good because I was on the verge of making a whole Thanksgiving-sized batch of the real stuff and eating it all myself. 

Slightly Yuppie-fied Stuffing (serves 2; approx. $4.43/serving)

3/4 stick Abruzzese sausage, halved and chopped

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 round of Garlic and Herb Boursin

2 celery stalks, diced

1/4 cup stale ciabatta, torn up

2 cups breadcrumbs

1 cup white wine

1 onion, chopped

Equipment:

• Skillet, saute pan or wok
• Small square baking pan, the kind you'd make brownies in

1. Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-low heat. 
2. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. 
3. Add the onion and the celery.  Cook until the onion is soft. 
4. Add the sausage.  Cook until the sausage begins to leak a bit and the mixture becomes very fragrant.
5. Add the bread and breadcrumbs.  Mix well.  Remove from heat.
6. Add the boursin.  Mix very well. 
7. Spread the mixture into the baking pan.  Add 1/2 cup of the white wine. 
8. Bake 10 minutes.
9. Add another 1/2 cup of the white wine.  Bake another 10 minutes.
10. Serve, and wish you had more. 

Comments

[Angie's Recipes]

This is totally new for me.....can it used as a turkey stuffing?

[Natasha - 5 Star Foodie]

I've only made stuffing one time before and it didn't turn out so great, this sounds excellent, bookmarking it to try!

[Fearless Kitchen]

Natasha - You could also try the original stuffing I modeled this off, it's a little simpler and doesn't have the cheese. I liked both :)

Angie - I haven't tried it as a turkey stuffing, but I can't see a reason why you couldn't.