The Very Best Stuffing

Bella Breakdown

Some might wonder if it’s possible to make a stuffing outside the turkey as delicious as one baked inside the turkey. This recipe is your answer. Our stuffing magically encompasses that deliciously crisp crunchiness and that warm custardy center we all love.

The key ingredient is sausage, which gives the stuffing those all-important crispy bites, and the fat contributes essential flavor.

To make:

Ingredients
8 SERVINGS
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, divided, plus more
10 cups coarsely torn sourdough bread, dried out overnight
⅓ cup blanched hazelnuts
3 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
2 onions, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped sage
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
½ cup dry white wine
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 cups turkey or chicken stock (preferably homemade), plus more

Take a loaf of sourdough bread and tear into 1-2 inch irregular pieces and allow it to dry overnight. Chop up toasted hazelnuts and add to bread. Butter a glass baking pan.

Brown three links of hot Italian sausage in a skillet. Place the bread pieces into a large bowl and add the cooked sausage, leaving the fat behind in the skillet.

Cook the onions, celery, and sage in the sausage fat and add a pinch of salt. Add the vegetable mixture to the bread and sausage mixture.

Deglaze the skillet with white wine, then melt in one stick of butter. Pour the mixture over the stuffing mixture.

Next, in a bowl, combine stock, eggs and cream and pour over the stuffing mixture. Mix the entire thing well then pour into the buttered glass pan.

Cover the pan with foil that you have buttered. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes.

Remove the foil, then increase the temperature to 450° to crisp the top of the stuffing mixture.

Delicious!
 
The perfect stuffing, check! Now onto the Cranberry-Orange Relish… yummy!