Savory Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers

This week's experiment was "Savory Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers". Sounds good, right? Well they were! Here's the recipe courtesy of cookinglight.com

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2/3 cup diced, peeled red potatoes
• 1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/3 cup diced yellow onion
• 2 (3.5-ounce) links hot chicken Italian sausage, casings removed
• 3 cups bagged washed baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 (14.1-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
• 2. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add potatoes, bell pepper, and onion to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until onion begins to brown, stirring frequently. Add sausage; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in spinach; cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Stir in basil, salt, and crushed red pepper. Remove from heat.
• 3. Cut dough into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 5-inch circle. Spoon about 1/2 cup potato mixture on half of each circle, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Fold dough over potato mixture until edges almost meet. Bring bottom edge of dough over top edge; crimp edges of dough to form a rim.
• 4. Place turnovers on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Combine 2 tablespoons water and egg white in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk; brush evenly over dough. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons cheese over each turnover. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving.

I ran into just a couple problems with this recipe. There was totally NOT enough pie dough to make all the little turnovers. They turned into looking more like "pigs in a blanket" with the filling poking out the ends. But, they were indeed, very yummy. They had a GREAT flavor to them. A touch on the spicy side, so if it's for kids, I'd tone down the crushed red pepper. Both my kids at them (after I poured ranch dressing on the top to counterbalance the spiciness). I also did NOT use the "hot chicken italian sausage", I used reduced fat pork sausage and it was really good. I think adding anymore heat to it would take it too over the top for me. In conclusion, I would make this recipe again, but maybe make my own dough, or buy more to make sure I can actually make pockets instead of having the filling coming out the sides.