marinade paste | The Green Egg & I

: Rope Sausage ready to prepare with seasonings, skewer and place on the grill

Initially inspired by a TV segment with Jamie Oliver, we added our technique and special touch, replicating this process with two recipes we explored and refined a number of times until we got it just to our liking. We initially tried our rope sausage recipes at a cooking demonstration and not only did we get rave reviews and all sorts of requests for the recipes, we were all out 6 wheels in 20 minutes…who knew!!. What’s fun about this is that you can try just about any rendition with your own selections of herbs and spices, etc to refine it until you get it just the way you want it…experiment, experiment….feel the passion of cooking, grilling and having fun on the The Big Green Egg or your favorite barbi.

So, what’s this all about?…well a quick overview is to first take the sausage pin wheel, unroll it and flatten it somewhat by lightly pressing down with your fingers the full length of the sausage so you can apply seasonings as shown here.

One recipe called for Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

The other recipe was a different variation…..

This recipe called for fresh Basil, Parsley, Roasted Garlic and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Recipes for both seasonings that are mixed into a paste are as follows…

Version One
5 Sage leaves coarsely chopped (approx. 2 tbsp) and additional leaves to add on top left whole when you wrap up or place individual links together on skewer, demonstrated further below.
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh rosemary coarsely chopped
1 tbsp roasted garlic (or 1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic)
1/2 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp dry Colemans mustard
1 tbsp vermouth
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Version Two
3 tbsp fresh basil coarsely chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley coarsely chopped
1 tbsp roasted garlic (or 1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic)
1/2 tbsp EVOO
5 sun dried tomatoes packed in oil

Mix your ingredients thoroughly until you get a thick consistency. I use a mortise and pestle to mix all my ingredients. Grinding the ingredients together releases all the flavors and melds everything together nicely into a paste, as shown.

Mixing Ingredients in Mortise and Pestle

Gently roll out sausage so as not to tear the casing and flatten with finger tips, giving a greater surface for which to apply paste, as shown;

Lightly flattened with seasoned paste (version 2) applied & ready to be rolled back up.

I f you can’t find pinwheel sausage, you can substitute large links of sweet Italian. Try plain or mixed seasoned links like garlic and cheese, sun-dried tomato, depending on the brand, as shown below, placing the links together with a skewer and/or basting separately while cooking…

Cheese, broccoli and garlic with version 1 paste and basting brush ready to pit on!

Place on grill..cook and baste with each turn, pricking the skin with your fork allowing excess fat to drain off…

Remember to baste frequently while pricking skin allowing sausage to drain excess fat...

Back to the Pinwheel/Rope sausage…after paste is applied, roll back up, skewer and place on the grill, liberally basting separately with excess paste when turning..

Rolling sausage back up (version one with sage leaves) Note how they are placed on top of the paste as well....when basting the edges get crisp and offer an incredible added texture and flavor to the sausage!!