Italian sausage and panettone stuffing

Ingredients

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lay out the panettone cubes on a large baking sheet, and toast them in the oven for 10 minutes, until they are crisp and golden at the edges. Allow to cool. This step can be done well in advance, just be sure to keep the toasted cubes in an airtight container.
2. Chop the onions and celery finely.
3. Put 2 tablespoons of the oil into a pan and, when warm, add the celery and onion and cook gently, stirring every now and again, for 10-15 minutes until softened.
4. Add the remaining oil to the pan, then squeeze the sausages out of their casings into the pan and break the pieces up with a wooden spoon as much as possible and mix with the celery and onion. Cook the sausage meat for about 10 minutes, or until the pinkness has left it, stirring regularly with your wooden spoon. All these steps can be done in advance.
5. Grease an ovenproof pan (approx. 3 x 8 inches), pretty enough to serve from, put in the toasted panettone cubes and add the sausage celery and onion. Use your hands to blend everything together well.
6. In the bowl that had the sausages, celery and onion, whisk the eggs with the broth (adding salt if it isn’t already salty, so taste the broth first) and pour this over the stuffing, leaving it to soak in for 5 minutes or so