Scottish Rolls with Homemade Sausages and Tomato Sauce

Homemade Lorne sausages and tomato sauce on Scottish rolls

In my previous post, I looked at the Scottish roll and sausage, which sees a square/sliced/Lorne sausage served on a bread roll. I focused largely upon cooking and serving bought sausages in a healthier fashion. In this post, I'm going to look at making not only the sausages but the accompanying tomato sauce from scratch in a hopefully healthier way.

The sauce has to be made first. What I am doing is essentially roasting some tomatoes in the oven before mashing them up to form a sauce. You could strain the tomatoes through a sieve or even blitz them in a food processor or blender but I ultimately chose to do neither and make a chunky, rustic tomato sauce.

Take three small tomatoes and cut them in half. Lay them cut sides up on a roasting tray. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of oregano. Grate a peeled garlic clove over the top and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. They then go in to the oven at 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2 for forty-five minutes.

Cherry tomato halves ready for roasting

While the tomatoes are roasting, you should use some of the time to prepare your Lorne sausage mix. These sausages are sometimes made with beef, sometimes pork but more commonly with a combination of the two. I am using 60% minced (ground) beef and 40% pork. I'm using six ounces of the combination to make what will be two sausages. Normally, sliced sausages are compressed in to large blocks and sliced (hence the name) so a far greater quantity of meat would be used in the recipe. What I am effectively doing is making the meat combination in to round sausages - or burger patties.

Meat and spices for homemade Lorne sausages

Put the mince in to a large glass or stone bowl. Season with half a teaspoon each of ground nutmeg, ground coriander seed and black pepper, as well as a good pinch of salt.

Homemade Lorne sausage meat combination

Use your hands to fully squeeze and mix all the ingredients together to evenly combine.

Oven roasted cherry tomatoes

Take the tray containing the tomatoes from your oven and pour them in to a bowl. Be sure to include all the olive oil and juices.

Roasted tomatoes are mashed with a fork

Take a fork and mash the tomatoes in to a chunky sauce. They can then be left to cool while the sausages are fried.

Starting to fry homemade Lorne sausages

Add a tablespoon or two of vegetable or sunflower oil to a non-stick frying pan and bring it up to a low to medium heat. Divide the meat combination in to two equal portions and roll in to balls. Flatten between the palms of your hands and lay the patties in the pan.

Homemade Lorne sausages are fried on their second side

The sausages will take around five minutes each side to fry on a low to medium heat. Ideally, you should turn them only once during this time.

Homemade Lorne sausages are added to toasted roll halves

It is entirely optional but I have lightly toasted the cut sides of the rolls here under the grill (broiler). Either way, lay the sausages on the bottom half of the rolls, spoon on the tomato sauce and garnish with some rolled and sliced basil leaves before closing the rolls over to serve.

Don't think these look like the Lorne/sliced sausages you get from your supermarket or butcher's? This is a traditional recipe and contains no artificial colourings or preservatives. Not all commercially produced sliced sausages contain colourings but a great many do. These colours may be as simple as tomato puree or paste; or they may be of a more sinister/chemical variety...

Scottish rolls with homemade Lorne sausages and tomato sauce