Portuguese Stuffing

I am not a big stuffing person. This stuffing is out-of-this-world amazing. Well, I guess it's technically a "dressing" since we don't actually stuff the turk--who cares?! It's awesome! It goes perfectly with the Portuguese turkey we make at Thanksgiving, and it is awesome as a leftover. One of our friends said it's "good but not traditional." I'll take good over traditional any day of the week. --Mark

Ingredients:

bread, hard

olive oil

garlic, minced

onions, chopped

crushed red pepper

tomato sauce

chourico

red wine

salt

giblets

turkey drippings

Instructions:

A few days before making the stuffing, break bread into chunks. Chop giblets and chourico in a food processor. Make sure the chunks are very small. In a pot, heat olive oil. Saute garlic and onions until soft. Add crushed red pepper and heat through. Stir in tomato sauce. Add giblets and chourico and cook through. Add salt. Once the meat is cooked, add in red wine and simmer.

Stir bread chunks into sauce until it is all covered. Put into greased roasting pan or baking dish. Place in oven with turkey for one hour, basting frequently with the turkey drippings.

Note:

One variation is to soak the dried bread in water and then squeeze out the excess water through a colander. Then add it to the sauce. Spread the bread mixture into a baking pan before cooking.