Join us in a culinary adventure with Chef John's Tomasini tutorial! In this video, discover the secrets behind crafting these delectable rolls filled with savory Sicilian flavors. From the delicate dough to the perfectly seasoned sausage filling, Chef John shares expert tips to ensure your rolls are a taste sensation. Elevate your baking skills and bring a touch of Sicily to your kitchen with these irresistible, sausage rolls.
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00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Sicilian sausage rolls.
00:09 That's right, I'm going to show you my take on Tomasini, which no, is not that authentic,
00:14 but it is nice to look at and extremely delicious.
00:17 And if you buy some ready-made pizza dough, it's also extremely easy.
00:22 So with that, let's go ahead and get started with that thing I just mentioned, which is
00:26 a 24-ounce ball of ready-made, store-bought pizza dough.
00:31 And what we'll do, using as much flour as we need, is press, stretch, and roll this
00:35 out into a rectangle somewhere close to 12 by 18 inches.
00:40 And by the way, if you have the time and you want to make this from scratch, one batch
00:44 of our famous Wolfgang Puck pizza dough will give you just about the perfect amount.
00:49 And one tip for working with pizza dough, since it tends to be very elastic, is that
00:53 if you're having trouble getting it rolled out into the right shape and size, because
00:57 it keeps contracting and stretching back in, just simply stop rolling for about a minute
01:02 and let the dough relax, and then continue rolling and stretching.
01:06 And you'll see, eventually you'll get it into the right shape, or at least something close,
01:11 which is all we ever ask.
01:13 And then once that's been accomplished, we will take one beaten egg, and we will brush
01:17 that over the entire surface, which is probably only going to take about half a beaten egg.
01:22 But that's perfect, since we're going to use the rest on the top.
01:26 And by the way, classically, this thing is stuffed with chopped hard-boiled eggs, which
01:31 I'm never a fan of in baked goods, so I much prefer applying the egg in this form.
01:36 And then once that's set, we can transfer on our ricotta cheese, but we are not going
01:41 to spread, we are going to scoop.
01:44 And please note I'm leaving space between the cheese, since that's where we're going
01:48 to be applying our sausage.
01:50 And the reason we're placing the filling down like this, instead of spreading with the cheese,
01:54 and then placing our sausage on, is because that way when you roll it up, the dough is
01:59 going to be completely surrounded by filling.
02:01 Whereas this way, since we have space between the rows, we will have spots where dough is
02:06 touching dough, which once baked produces an entirely different, and I think far superior,
02:11 texture.
02:12 So I transferred over my cheese, and then started placing sausage in between, which
02:17 was some standard issue sweet Italian sausage.
02:20 And it was right about here, when I realized my layout was completely wrong.
02:24 Okay, for this to come out correctly, every other row has to be staggered, so that cheese
02:29 lines up with sausage, and sausage lines up with cheese.
02:33 So yes, I had to stop here, and line things up properly, which was very messy, and kind
02:39 of annoying, but that is how the food gods punished me for not remembering.
02:44 And why having these rows staggered is so important, is because if our cheese and sausage
02:48 were all lined up in columns, once we rolled this up and sliced it, we can and probably
02:54 will have rolls that have nothing but cheese or sausage in them.
02:58 Whereas if we stagger each row, we should theoretically get an even amount of sausage
03:03 and cheese.
03:05 And after applying the last of the sausage, I decided I needed exactly one more scoop
03:10 of cheese.
03:12 And then as far as the rest of the filling ingredients go, I went ahead and dusted over
03:15 some freshly ground black pepper, as well as for a little extra kick, no not cayenne,
03:22 some red chili flakes.
03:24 And then I also like to sprinkle over some freshly sliced green onions, which as always
03:29 are optional, but I think work absolutely perfect in this.
03:34 And then last but not least, to finish up, I applied a fairly generous grating of pecorino
03:39 cheese, and of course some parmesan would also work, as long as it's the real stuff,
03:45 parmigiano reggiano.
03:47 And that's it, once we put in everything we're putting in, we can start rolling this up.
03:53 And as we bring this dough over the top of a row, and we get to that dough in between
03:57 the rows, that's where I like to give it a little bit of a stretch, and a little bit
04:01 of a press, while at the same time making sure we're shaping this into a nice uniform
04:06 roll.
04:07 And there are so many recipes, well pretty much all of them, that are way easier to do
04:12 if you're not trying to film them.
04:14 Okay when you're moving cameras and lights, and washing your hands between every shot,
04:19 this kind of thing is going to take two or three times longer than it would normally,
04:23 which means my filling ingredients and dough are getting warmer, and softer, and harder
04:28 to work with.
04:30 But despite all that, it still came out amazingly well.
04:33 And I only share that complaint, so that you realize, yours is going to be even better.
04:37 Oh and as usual, once we get towards the end, we generally want to stretch out the corners
04:42 of the dough, as well as along the edge, so that we have enough to make a nice seal.
04:48 And we will hopefully end up with a seam at the bottom, and then once rolled up we can
04:52 do a little fine tuning.
04:55 And once that's been accomplished, we can take a knife, and I'm going to cut right in
04:59 the center about three quarters of the way down, and then once I have this divided in
05:03 quarters, I cut each quarter into three pieces, which are going to be about an inch and a
05:07 half wide, and I like to work from the center to the ends, since the very end is going to
05:13 be mostly dough, which we could discard, or simply bake up like a roll, and have a little
05:18 chef snack.
05:19 And once I had all these cuts made about three quarters of the way down, I took my bench
05:23 scraper to finish the cut off, mostly because I didn't want to use a knife on my stone counter,
05:29 but also as I mentioned, by this point this dough and filling was so soft and so warm,
05:35 I thought the bench scraper would be the easiest way to go.
05:39 And then once cut, we will somehow transfer that onto a parchment lined sheet pan.
05:43 Oh and as I pan these up, I should mention, even though it's super obvious, if you want
05:48 to put some different kinds of meat, or different kinds of cheeses in this, go ahead.
05:52 I mean you are after all the RuPaul, of making that call.
05:56 Oh and speaking of tucking, after panning these up, I noticed a piece of sausage and
06:01 some filling that was left on the counter, so I picked it up and tucked it in, right
06:05 underneath, and once this bakes up, no one will have any idea we did that.
06:11 And then to finish these up, let's go ahead and brush the rest of our egg mixture over
06:14 the top, which not only adds some richness, but it's going to help give these an even
06:19 more beautiful color.
06:21 And then for one last touch, I like to grate a little more cheese on top, which is definitely
06:26 optional, but the cheese and grater were sitting right there, so I thought why not.
06:32 And that's it, these are now ready to transfer into the center of a 400 degree oven, for
06:37 about 45 minutes, or until they're beautifully browned, and look like this.
06:42 Oh yeah, those do look nice, and kind of sort of like cheese sausage danish, but don't worry,
06:48 they don't taste like danish.
06:50 These are very, very savory to the extreme.
06:53 And then I guess you could let them cool on the pan, but you know me, I like to transfer
06:58 these things onto a cooling rack, so they cool down a little faster, and the bottoms
07:03 don't get soggy.
07:05 And besides the tops being a beautiful golden brown, if everything's gone according to plan,
07:10 the bottoms should be just as beautiful.
07:13 And if you want to eat these hot, go ahead, but I think they're much, much better if you
07:16 let them cool down to room temp, which I sort of did, before going in for the official bite.
07:22 And that my friends, while not an authentic Tomasini, is an absolutely delicious Tomasini.
07:29 And I really hope I'm saying that right, even though I'm pretty sure I'm not.
07:33 But anyway, even though those layers of dough were very, very thin by the time this got
07:36 rolled up, and we used a fairly huge amount of filling, somehow, someway, these still
07:41 bake up into a perfectly textured roll.
07:45 And sure, you should definitely make these for yourself, but if you're looking for an
07:48 easy, relatively inexpensive snack to put out at a party, I cannot think of anything
07:53 better than this.
07:55 Speaking of which, these are absolutely fine to serve as is, but in a party setting, some
08:00 kind of dip might be nice.
08:03 And what you see here is a tomato sauce that I spiked with lots of anchovy, and a little
08:07 bit of lemon and garlic and parsley, which I thought paired perfectly.
08:11 So if you are going to do some kind of sauce for a party, please put a spoon in it, so
08:16 that people can grab a roll and throw it on a plate, and then spoon some of the sauce
08:20 on the side or on top.
08:22 Otherwise you'll have people biting and dipping like a savage, which as you know is how I
08:26 eat when I'm home alone.
08:29 And what makes these so irresistible, besides obviously the delicious flavors, is that we
08:34 have those big chunks of cheese and meat, with just enough of that pizza dough to hold
08:37 everything together.
08:38 Alright, it's kind of hard to describe, but these really are truly unique.
08:44 But anyway, that's it.
08:45 My totally not authentic twist on Tomasini.
08:49 Whether you make your pizza dough from scratch or not, or whether you customize the fillings
08:53 or do it just like we did, these really are an easy and spectacular thing to serve at
08:57 a party.
08:58 Which is why I really do hope you give these a try soon.
09:02 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe and much
09:07 more info as usual.
09:09 And as always, enjoy!
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