Italian Sausage Béchamel Puff Pastry

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• One package of Puff Pastry Sheets (the Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets is the one I use most)
• 2 Tbsp unsalted Butter
• 2 Tbsp AP Flour
• 1 cup dairy liquid. This could be 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup chicken broth, etc. The heavier the fat in the dairy the richer the béchamel with be. Not enough fat and the béchamel will not render right.
• 1/2 an Onion, diced.
• 3/4 Bell Pepper, any color, diced.
• 1/2 lb Italian Sausage
• You could use ANY vegetable and ANY meat that sounds good to you instead of the above 3. Chicken pot pie version? Shredded cooked chicken and frozen mixed veggies. Pizza version? Pepperoni, mozzarella and some Italian seasoning, maybe don’t even make the béchamel.
• Handful of shredded Italian Cheese

Puff Pastry Prep:

1. Place each Puff Pastry Sheet on at least a 9×13 pan (can be as big as you want). It should be completely frozen.
2. Leave the pans out on the counter with saran wrap or a tea towel on them.
3. After 30 minutes, remove covering and unfold the Puff Pastry Sheets if they are thawed enough to do so. If they are not, wait and try again later.
4. Once they are thawed and flat they can be used right away or placed in the fridge (with saran wrap on them) to wait until it is time to prep the meal.

Prep:

1. Saute and crumble the Italian Sausage.
2. Dice the Onion and Bell Pepper.
3. Cut each Puff Pastry Sheet into 4 squares (or square-ish)
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Béchamel:

1. Add butter to sauce pan on medium heat, allow to completely melt.
2. Once melted, add flour and whisk continuously until there are no lumps and the mixture has browned a little.
3. Add a little bit of your dairy mixture at first, whisking continuously. I tend to turn down the stove during this part to Low.
4. You can continue adding dairy little by little OR you can dump the rest in unceremoniously. The reason to add a little bit of dairy at first (and maybe even a little bit more depending on how it’s looking) is because that flour mixture (called a roux) likes to stay together. Add a little dairy and it all becomes a mixture. Add too much dairy too soon and you have clumps of butter-flour in your dairy.
5. Once all your dairy is in, put the heat back on medium and stir for a few minutes until it thickens. If you used any heavy cream this will happen fast, if you used only milk this will take longer.
6. Once it is thick add the veggies, sausage and shredded cheese.

Bake:

1. Spoon the mixture in the center of each of your 8 “squares”.
2. I pull all 4 corners together and use a toothpick to poke through them to try to hold them together. Even with the toothpick sometimes they don’t stay though!
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed.