Savoury bread pudding with turkey sausage and kale

US: To make sure this preparation comes out rich and satisfying but not overbearing, choose leaner (but still flavourful) turkey sausage instead of pork and banned soggy bread by toasting torn baguette slices, enriching their flavour and ensuring they would stand up to the custard.

To add even more depth to the pudding while further preventing a wet texture, microwave kale with some aromatics and oil to jump-start its cooking and eliminate excess water in our finished dish.

Stir the toasted bread into simple custard; prepare it with 3 parts cream to 2 parts milk for measured richness. To prevent curdling, stabilise the custard by using just yolks rather than the traditional whole eggs.

Once the bread absorbs some of the custard and the kale is mixed in, layer the custard-bread mixture with sausage and top it all off with Parmesan. From there, all you have to do is bake it, cover at first to set the filling and then uncover for the last 20 minutes to generate some appealing browning.

Bread pudding with turkey sausage and kale

Ingredients:

1 (18-to-20 inch) baguette, torn into 1 inch pieces (10 cups)

1 pound kale, stemmed and chopped

4 shallots, sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

8 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 pound turkey sausage, casings removed

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Step 1

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 F. Arrange bread in even layer in 13-by-9 inch baking dish. Bake, stirring occasionally, until bread is crisp and browned, about 12 minutes; let cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 F.

Step 2

Meanwhile, combine kale, shallots, garlic, and oil in bowl and microwave, stirring occasionally, until kale is wilted, about 5 minutes. Wrap kale mixture in clean dish towel and wring tightly to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

Step 3

Whisk cream, milk, egg yolks, and mustard together in large bowl. Stir in toasted bread and drained kale mixture until well combined.

Step 4

Spray now-empty baking dish with vegetable oil spray. Pour half of bread mixture into prepared dish. Crumble half of sausage into 1/2 inch pieces over top. Top with remaining bread mixture and remaining sausage. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Step 5

Cover tightly with greased aluminium foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until custard is just set and top is browned, about 20 minutes. Remove dish from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with chives before serving.