A cheesy and delicious Italian Sausage Bread appetizer that the family will love. When you make it, you won’t even think about what to do with the leftovers; you’ll just know that you need to make two loaves next time.
Sausage bread is a fun and tasty loaf that is perfect for parties, game days or weeknight dinners. The fun of sausage bread comes from the flavorful sausage filling rolled up in soft, chewy bread dough. It’s basically like getting all the flavors of a sausage pizza wrapped up in an easy hand-held loaf!
Making sausage bread at home is suprisingly easy. With just a few simple ingredients you can have cheesy, meaty perfection ready to serve in under an hour. Let’s walk through the basic steps of how to make this crowd-pleasing stuffed bread.
Ingredients Needed
- Bread dough – Frozen loaf, pizza dough, or homemade bread dough works great. You want about 1 pound of dough.
- Sausage – Breakfast sausage or Italian sausage work well. Use about 1 pound.
- Cheese – Shredded mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey Jack all work. Use around 1-2 cups.
- Seasonings – Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder.
- Egg wash – An egg beaten with a splash of water to help things brown.
Prep the Filling
First up is cooking the sausage and getting the filling ready. Take your 1 pound of sausage and cook it over medium heat in a skillet until browned and cooked through. Break up the meat so it is in small crumbles. Once cooked, drain excess grease.
While the sausage cooks, shred your cheese and mix together any seasonings you want to add to the filling.
Roll Out the Dough
Take your thawed bread dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it out into a large rectangle shape, approximately 10 x 14 inches.
If the dough is fighting you, let it rest for 5-10 minutes which makes it easier to work with.
Layer on Filling
Now comes the fun part! Sprinkle the dough evenly with half of your seasonings. Next, spread the cooked sausage over the dough, leaving a 1 inch border along the edges.
Evenly cover the sausage with the shredded cheese. Top with remaining seasonings.
Roll It Up
Start rolling up the dough from one long side, keeping it tight as you go. Make sure to pinch and tuck the seam to seal the loaf.
Bake
Place seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush loaf with egg wash.
Bake at 350°F for 25-35 minutes until deep golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes before slicing.
And that’s it! With just a few easy steps you can have delicious homemade sausage bread ready to eat.
Tips for Making the Best Sausage Bread
- For more flavor, use a combo of cheeses like mozzarella and cheddar or provolone.
- Try adding sauteed onions, peppers, or mushrooms to the filling.
- Use pizza dough for a chewy texture. Brioche or challah dough adds richness.
- Add a brush of butter over the loaf before baking for extra richness.
- For a pretty swirl, braid strands of dough before filling and rolling.
- Bake on a pizza stone for extra crisp crust.
- Switch up the sausage – spicy Italian, chicken apple, or chorizo would all be tasty.
Fun Ways to Serve Sausage Bread
Part of the appeal of sausage bread is that it can be served so many ways! Here are some fun ideas:
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Slice it up and eat it as finger food at parties. Provide a dipping sauce like marinara or ranch on the side.
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Turn it into slider sandwiches. Slice and pile on mini rolls with cheese and sauteed peppers.
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Make sausage bread “stromboli” by wrapping each slice with ham and provolone cheese.
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Dress it up for breakfast. Top slices with scrambled eggs and cheese for hand-held sandwiches.
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For an appetizer, slice and toast the bread, then top with bruschetta tomatoes and basil.
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Stuff slices into hoagie rolls with lettuce, tomato, and condiments for hearty subs.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless when it comes to serving up this stuffed sausage loaf. It’s a fun base recipe to play with that always satisfies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of sausage works best?
Both breakfast sausage and Italian sausage are excellent options. Breakfast sausage has a nice mild seasoning while Italian sausage packs a bit more punch.
Can I use pizza dough instead?
Absolutely! Pizza dough gives the bread a nice chewy, crispy crust. Other doughs like challah, brioche and French bread dough also work well.
What’s the best way to reheat leftovers?
I recommend reheating slices in a 300°F oven until warmed through, about 10 minutes. The oven helps revive the crust without making it soggy.
Can I prepare sausage bread ahead of time?
You can assemble the entire sausage bread a day in advance through the rolling and filling stage. Keep refrigerated and bake right before serving. You can also bake the loaf, then freeze it up to 2 months. Thaw in fridge overnight before reheating.
What sides go well with this?
Sausage bread pairs nicely with marinara sauce for dipping. Other ideas are salad, pasta salad, soup, or roasted veggies. Basically anything you’d serve alongside Italian food!
Making sausage bread from scratch is easier than you’d think. With a few simple steps and ingredients you can have a show-stopping stuffed loaf ready to slice and serve. Experiment with different doughs, sausage, and fillings until you create your perfect family recipe.
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Ways to switch up the recipe!
- One of our favorite additions to the recipe is olives. We like to add black olives to recipes to make them taste better, but some people don’t like them. Usually, we have one olive loaf and one regular loaf.
- Adding broccoli rabe to the loaf is also possible; just swap out about half of the sausage for chopped up cooked broccoli rabe.
- My dad loves to make bread with Swiss cheese and broccoli sautéed in garlic that doesn’t have any meat in it.
- Like in our pepperoni stromboli, you could also use cold cuts instead of sausage.
- I also like to change the dipping sauce we use. For more taste, try dipping them in a pink or red pepper sauce that is creamy.
Bignolati is the name for Sicilian-style sausage bread. Its usually served on holidays like Christmas and New Years Eve.
Hot or sweet Italian sausage works really well depending on everyones preference.
Yes, cut the dough into 8 equal pieces after rolling it out and put them on a baking sheet. You will still need to do an egg wash and season. You can follow the instructions for the pepperoni stromboli and just substitute sausage.
I like to only cut what we are going to eat. Albeit, we usually eat the entire loaf at most family functions. Some days, though, I cut up half of the bread and store it in the fridge or freezer while I cool the other half and wrap it all in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh in the fridge for 4-5 days and in the freezer for 3 months.
I put each slice on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake them in the oven at 350 degrees to warm them up again. If youre removing it from the freezer, allow it to defrost in the fridge overnight for best results.
Eating these as leftovers is sort of like reheating pizza. Its just as good on day two. I highly recommend not putting this in the microwave, as it will just get moist and gooey.
Please leave a comment and star rating below in the recipe card! I love to hear about what you think of our recipes. Feel free to tag us on Instagram @vindelgiudice.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
Sausage. When I’m in a hurry, I use my Sweet Italian Sausage Seasoning or a homemade mixture to make my own ground sausage mix.
I try not to use big brands like Johnsonville or Premio because I don’t like their sausages. A lot of good butchers will have decent sausage too. Every sausage is different though because you can stuff it with whatever flavors you want.
I make homemade sausage and freeze it every year. You can also use the same recipe I use for my Italian Ring Sausage, which has a nice mix of flavors.
Dough. I use the pizza dough from NYT cooking, Robertas pizza dough, but I dont separate the dough in half. Youre going to want a pretty big pizza dough for 1 lb of sausage. When I lived in New York I would just buy the dough directly from a pizzeria, which was very convenient.
You can get your dough from anywhere. Trader Joes sells doughs, but theyre a little smaller, so keep that in mind. Usually, my dough is about 2 lbs. I think Trader Joes sells a 1lb dough, so adjust accordingly.
Step 1: In a large pan on medium-high heat. Brown the sausage until no pink remains. Set it aside and let the sausage cool slightly. Dont worry about cooking the sausage completely through because its going to get cooked again.
Preheat oven to 375℉.
Next, take your pizza dough and roll it out on a floured surface until it’s about ¼ inch thick and in the shape of a pizza.
Step 3: Place mozzarella and provolone slices on top of each other so that they cover as much dough as possible. Then sprinkle the parmesan across the dough.
Step 4: Add your cooled crumbled sausage and spread evenly across the dough.
- Rolling: Don’t make the dough too thin when you roll it out. It’s more likely to break that the dough is too thin during the cooking process when the bread is rising.
- Moving: Be careful not to break the bread when moving it from one surface to another. Hold the sausage down below the bread so it doesn’t happen. When you add ½ pound of cheese and a pound of sausage to the bread, it can get pretty heavy.
Step 5: Pull the dough’s edges apart so there is space between the meat or cheese and the edges of the dough. Pull the dough edges and start rolling the dough. Fold the edges of the dough in as you roll to make sure everything stays contained.
Step 6: Brush the bread with the egg. Season the top of the bread and place on an oiled baking pan.
Step 7: Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. Let the bread cool for 5-10 minutes. Slice and serve with your favorite marinara sauce!.
