I Can’t Stop Thinking About: Bella & Tortie’s Impossibly Moreish Siu Mai-Inspired Sausage Roll

At 7am every Friday and Saturday, a line starts forming outside Bella & Tortie, the popular bakery tucked behind a Stafford shopping precinct. At 7.30, the doors open. Some are here for the textbook canelés, highly technical choux pastries and creamy Basque cheesecake. But many – knowingly or not – are about to walk away with one of the city’s best sausage rolls: the pork, prawn and water chestnut.

Owner Suzi Unwin didn’t set out to reinvent the sausage roll. She just wanted to take a break and eat some yum cha. After a few plates of siu mai, something clicked. “I was like, ‘this could work well as a sausage roll’,” she says. “I love that combination of pork and prawn.”

She wanted to keep the mixture “fresh and bright”, so ramped up the amount of ginger and added carrot and shallot. She also swapped the mushrooms for water chestnuts to add texture. The result is aromatic, flaky and juicy.

In keeping with the siu mai inspiration, Unwin knew she needed a sauce to go with it. Enter the chilli soy dip, a glorious mix of chilli oil, sesame oil and roasted Japanese sesame seeds. It’s so good, this writer would buy it by the bottle.

There are a few different sausage rolls on the menu, but Unwin calls this one her signature. “To be honest, I don’t know if I could create [a sausage roll] that I’m prouder of,” she says. “I keep trying different things and come up with new ones but for me, nothing can top this one.”

Unwin says the roll is best eaten fresh from the oven. If you’re taking it home, she recommends popping it in the air fryer, or in a hot oven, for a few minutes to crisp it back up. She also sells them frozen so you can bake them fresh when the craving hits. And trust me, it hits often.

Bella & Tortie is located at 12/240 Stafford Road and is open Friday and Saturday from 7:30am–midday.

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