Happy pie day a day late!!! Pie is good. Pie is usually sweet but can be savoury. Pie has a beautiful crust. Pie is… a bit straight-laced. And pie, well she can stress me out.

Don’t get me wrong! I do love a good fruit pie with a piece of cheese, or a tart and tangy shaker pie full of slices of lemon with a piece of cheese. Do you see a pattern here? Why not put cheese IN… THE… PIE?!?! And what if that pie was just a little more hippy-dippy than your usual pie? What if that pie was the sort of free form pie that wore gauzy shirts and long skirts and beaded twine bracelets? What if that pie was *GASP*, Galette?!?!

Whoa lady.

Galette is 78.3% easier than pie and every bit as impressive. The dough comes together in about 15 minutes, give it an hour or so in the fridge to get nice and cold, roll that puppy out into sort of a circle, scoop on your filling and fold up the edges. 40 minutes in the oven and she’s all yours. Ahhh Galette. J’taime.

Now that I’ve sold you on galette, let me sell you on something else you are going to love but you don’t know it yet… savoury galette. That’s right… saaaaaavoury. And not just savoury but spicy with delicious sausage balanced with the sweetness of fennel and topped with smoked cheese. Ya, you heard me.

The filling is inspired by this recipe. The dough is my usual recipe which you can find here but you can use any pie crust dough that you are comfortable with. You will need enough to make one round about 14-15 inches across and slightly thicker than 1/8th inch.

Use whatever sausage you like but make sure to taste the filling and adjust the seasoning before you spoon it onto the dough. Every sausage is different so yours might need a dash of salt, a touch of sugar, or a shake of worchestershire to give it some depth. It’s much easier to correct the seasoning at this point than after the pie is made.

Pie crust dough to make one round 14-15 inches across
1 pound spicy sausage meat (I used regular hot Italian but fennel would also be delicious)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in oil, chopped
1 cup shredded smoked cheese (gouda or mozzarella)
2 TBS chopped fresh sage
2 TBS chopped fresh rosemary
1 egg, lightly beaten with a teaspoon water for egg wash
flake sea salt

Heat oven to 375F.

For the filling:

Sprinkle thinly sliced fennel with 1 tsp sugar and set aside.

Remove meat from casings if you have purchased it in sausage form and fry over medium high heat until the fat starts to melt and coat your pan. Add onion and fry for about 4 minutes. Add the thinly sliced fennel and continue to fry until everything is soft and lighlty browned, approximately another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sun-dried tomatoes, and chopped sage and rosemary. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.

Assemble the galette:

Roll out dough on a clean, lightly floured piece of parchment about 14-15 inches across and slightly thicker than 1/8th inch. No worries if the dough goes over the edges as you will be folding it up over the galette shortly. Scoop filling onto the centre of the dough with a slotted spoon or tongs, leaving behind most of the fat in the pan. Ensure you have a good 2 inch border all around the dough. Sprinkle the top with shredded cheese and fold the border up over the filling, overlapping the dough where necessary and press down lightly to create the folds.

Brush the border with the egg wash and sprinkle with flake sea salt. Slide the parchment with the dough onto a cookie sheet and place in oven. Cook for 35-40 minutes until crust is golden.

Remove from oven and let sit 5 minutes before cutting. Serve alongside a salad with a zesty, fresh dressing to balance the richness of the pie.