Sausage Stuffed Flank Steak

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel onions and slice into very thin half moons. I use a mandoline. Set aside.

Heat an ovenproof skillet (cast iron is lovely) over medium heat and melt some butter and olive oil.

Unwrap flank steak from packaging and place between two pieces of plastic wrap with the grain of the meat running parallel to you. Using the flat side of a meat mallet or small frying pan, flatten the flank steak to 1/2-3/4 inch thickness to aid in rolling up once it’s stuffed. One end will be wider than the other. I like to keep the narrowest side on the left and widest side on the right.

Salt and pepper both sides of meat.

Using your fingers, spread about 1/3 of the breakfast sausage on half the flank steak, allowing a slight border on the left and top and bottom and not going all the way to the wide (right) end of the meat (probably only covering half to 2/3 of the surface). The sausage will want to gush out as it is rolled and leaving the border makes allowance for that.

Sprinkle some (not all) sliced onions on the sausage and press.

Have three skewers (bamboo or otherwise) at the ready, and beginning at the narrow end (on the left), roll the meat into a tight pinwheel, trying not to let too much sausage gush out. Stab it with skewers to hold it together and keep it from unrolling. If using bamboo, trim off the non-pointy ends so it will fit in the pan.

Put it in the hot pan and while it is browning, open the cans of tomatoes. Flip the meat so that all possible sides are brown, then remove from the pan. Place a few handfuls of onions in the pan to make a little bed for the pinwheel. Return the pinwheel to the pan, cover with the remaining onions, and pour the two cans of tomatoes over the top. You may wish to smash the tomatoes up a bit.

Cover the pan with parchment paper, then tin foil, and insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the pinwheel and place the pan in the preheated oven.

After about 45 minutes, check the thermometer. It is important that the internal temperature reaches the appropriate marker to ensure that the pork sausage is cooked through, although an hour is usually safe.

Carefully remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the pinwheel from the pan and slice into 6 to 8 round slices. Serve over hot buttered rice and a side of green beans (remember to remove the skewers). Be sure to ladle generous amounts of the tomato-onion broth over the rice and meat.