Italian Sausage Braid

Savory Italian sausage, fresh spinach, and creamy Havarti cheese tucked into buttery crescent dough and baked golden. Slice for appetizers, serve as a main, or enjoy as handheld party bites any time of year.

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Main Course, Snacks

Cuisine American, Italian, Southern

Keyword crescent-roll-recipes, Italian-sausage-braid, italian-sausage-spinach-and-havarti-crescent-braid

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 18

Resting Time 5

Total Time 43

Servings 1-inch slices

Calories 181kcal

Author Melissa Sperka

Ingredients

1 8 oz can crescent seamless dough sheet
3/4 lb spicy or mild ground Italian sausage
5 medium green onion chopped
1/2 tsp dry Italian seasoning, plus 1/4 tsp
Garlic salt and black pepper
1 5 oz package baby spinach leaves
8 oz Havarti cheese shredded
1 Tbsp butter melted
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat cook the sausage and chopped onion together until no pin remains. Drain any excess fat from the pan.
Add 1/2 tsp dry Italian seasoning and baby spinach to the pan. Cook stirring until the spinach has wilted. Season to your taste with garlic salt and black pepper. Continue to cook for a couple of minutes until the juice released from the spinach has dried. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Press the crescent dough into a 12x16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle 1/2 of the shredded cheese down the center of the dough.
Spoon the Italian sausage and spinach mixture over the cheese, then cover with the remaining shredded cheese.
Make 1-inch cuts on each side of the filling at an angle starting at the edge of the dough. Fold the slices over each other.
Brush the top and sides with melted butter then sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and dry Italian seasoning.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden. Rest for 5 minutes on the pan then slice and serve.

Notes

Cheese - You can use any flavor of cheese for this recipe that you like. I chose Havarti cheese because of it's creamy slightly nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with the spinach and sausage. You could use mozzarella cheese, colby jack cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, fontina cheese, gruyere cheese or spicy pepper jack cheese.
Crescent Rolls - A sheet of crescent dough makes assembly a cinch. You can use classic crescent rolls, simply press together at the perforations.
Fresh Herbs - You could add fresh parsley, rosemary or basil.
Spice - Add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes for spice.
Pizza Dough - This recipe could easily be adapted using a can of refrigerated pizza dough.
Egg - You could use an egg wash to brush the crescent braid just before baking instead of butter.
Veggies - You could add mushrooms to the sausage mixture.

Nutrition