Sausage and Walnut Stuffing

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Dairy-Free

Skill Level: Beginner

Yield: 1 9x13 pan of stuffing; serves about 10 people

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes

Cook Time: 50-60 minutes

Equipment Needed:

• Cutting board

• Chef's knife

• Large mixing bowl

• 9x13-inch pan

• Large stock pot

• Silicone spatula or wooden spoon

The Recipe:

This recipe was originally written for Real Simple magazine

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 2 medium onions, chopped

• 6 stalks celery, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• About 8 cups of stale or dried bread pieces

• 2 cups chicken broth or stock

• 1 1/2 cups walnuts, chopped

• 3 large eggs, beaten

• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Heat oil in stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon or spatula, until browned and no pink remains. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the sausage to a plate or bowl.

3. Add butter, onion, celery, garlic, sage, 1-2 teaspoons of kosher salt (more or less to taste), and 1/2-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (more or less to taste) to the stock pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are softened, 8-10 minutes.

4. Add the bread pieces, broth or stock, walnuts, beaten eggs, parsley, and cooked sausage to the stock pot with the veggies. Stir thoroughly (mixture will shrink considerably as the dried bread absorbs the liquids).

5. Transfer stuffing to a 9x13-inch baking dish and cover with foil. Bake until heated through, 30-40 minutes. Uncover and bake until browned, 15-20 additional minutes.

6. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

To Serve: This stuffing is simply marvelous served alongside a festive roasted or smoked turkey, roast chicken, pork chops, and more!

Adjusting for your diet: If you have a nut allergy, you could skip the walnuts altogether. If you follow a gluten-free diet, you could try using gluten-free bread pieces. If you are a vegetarian, substitute vegetable stock for the chicken stock and leave out the Italian sausage.

Tips:

• I always like using yellow onions in recipes such as these; in a pinch I think you could use a white onion but I'm not sure a red onion would give you quite the same flavor profile.

• The original recipe suggests doing all of the cooking in a skillet, and transferring everything to a large bowl to mix. However, I find that using a large stock pot gives you much more room to stir, especially if you are increasing the yield of this recipe (as I usually do). I actually use a 20-quart stockpot when I double this recipe, which is probably much larger than necessary but I like that I have tons of room to work.

• For a group of 15-20, I usually multiply all ingredients in this recipe by 1.5 (in this scenario, I use 5 eggs). This recipe also doubles beautifully to make two 9x13-inch pans of stuffing (and the leftovers are moist and delicious).

• There is a grocery store near my house that always sells dried-out bread pieces around Thanksgiving time, which saves me a step! If you are just as lucky, a 1-pound bag (pictured below) will be more than enough bread pieces to double this recipe. Alternatively, you can buy a loaf of country bread, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, and leave out on a baking sheet overnight to dry out (or bake in a 200-degree oven until dried and slightly hardened).

• I always partially make this stuffing two days before I intend to serve it; I stop after mixing everything together (before baking), cover it with foil, and store in the refrigerator until I am ready to bake it. Although this is certainly not required, I actually think it makes the stuffing even more moist because everything sits and soaks for two days before it is baked. The day I am going to serve it, I remove it from the oven 30-60 minutes before I begin baking, so it can temp up a bit before it goes into the oven. Then, I bake it covered for 40 minutes and uncovered for 20 minutes. If I have made two pans, I shut off the oven and transfer one pan of stuffing to a serving dish, leaving the second pan in the oven to stay warm with the residual heat until I need it.

• This is one of those recipes that's just easiest if you mise en place (get all of your ingredients chopped and ready) before you begin cooking.

• When I first started making this recipe, I could only find Italian sausage in links, so I would remove the casings and use the ground sausage. Now, I am always able to find ground Italian sausage by the pound so I use that and eliminate the step of removing the casings.

The Story:

My husband and I have been hosting Thanksgiving for our combined families for 12 years, and have only missed one (2020, thanks Covid). We love bringing everyone together, and we love planning and executing a big festive meal.

The first Thanksgiving we hosted was understandably a bit unorganized; I had planned too many side dishes, insisted I did not need any help, and found myself wishing I had about 13 more hands while my husband tended to the turkey. However, one side dish at that "first Thanksgiving" prevailed as the true MVP: the sausage and walnut stuffing I had found in an issue of Real Simple and decided to try.

Just before the bake

This stuffing is...everything. It's moist, unbelievably flavorful, so savory, and one of the more amazing bites to grace our Thanksgiving spread each year. After 12 years of hosting, this is the ONLY recipe that I have made exactly the same since year 1 (excluding changing the yield from year-to-year, depending on how the guest count fluctuates). With so much to prepare, it is also a huge bonus that I can fully assemble it the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, leaving my Wednesday free for other tasks such as making pies, marinating olives, making gravy, etc. Although there is a fair amount of prep steps, the recipe itself is also quite simple.

My mom always jokes that she skips out on other sides so she can take extra stuffing :) hands down my favorite Thanksgiving side dish, I hope this sausage and walnut stuffing will become one of yours as well!

Happy tasting!