Sweet Italian Sausage Recipes

HOMEMADE ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Cut pork shoulder into cubes. Place in a bowl and refrigerate while preparing the other ingredients.
• Grind garlic with a pinch of salt in a mortar to make a paste. Add fennel, anise, and black pepper. Bruise spices lightly with a pestle to release the flavors. Add red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, oregano, marjoram, coriander, mustard, allspice, sugar, and a splash of water. Stir to combine.
• Add the spice paste to the pork cubes. Mix thoroughly by hand. Add the remaining salt. Cover and refrigerate until flavors meld, 8 hours to overnight.
• Process the cold pork through a meat grinder on the slowest speed.
• Push a casing onto the stuffing tube of your meat grinder. Feed the sausage meat through the filling tray. Run the meat through the casing on the slowest speed until all the casing is used up. Tie casing at the end into a knot. Pinch and twist the meat to create links if desired.
• Place sausage onto a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Refrigerate uncovered for 24 hours.
• Preheat a charcoal grill for medium heat. Separate the links and grill them until browned, about 5 minutes per side.

SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE WITH PENNE PASTA

Steps:

• Boil the water and cook the penne according to package directions. DO NOT ever add oil to the water! It will make your sauce slide off the pasta later.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil (medium-high heat) in a large skillet and saute the broccoli, sausage and garlic until tender and starting to brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Toss the butter, hot pasta, sausage mixture and romano cheese together and serve. Pass the grated cheese at the table.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE, PEPPERS, AND ONIONS

Steps:

• Place the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, and brown on all sides. Remove from skillet, and slice.
• Melt butter in the skillet. Stir in the yellow onion, red onion, and garlic, and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in red bell pepper and green bell pepper. Season with basil, and oregano. Stir in white wine. Continue to cook and stir until peppers and onions are tender.
• Return sausage slices to skillet with the vegetables. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, or until sausage is heated through.

HOMEMADE SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Mix together all the seasonings in a bowl (salt, pepper, sugar, fennel, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, thyme, and oregano).
• Combine the pork, seasonings, and optional red wine in bowl and make sure all spices are blended into the ground pork. If unsure of flavor, heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Cook a small patty and then taste test. Adjust seasonings if needed.
• Divide into patties, or portions for what ever you want to cook it with. You can freeze the sausage too.

SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Get out about 15 to 20 feet of hog casings and soak them in warm water.
• Cut the meat and fat into chunks you can fit into your meat grinder. Mix together the salt, sugar, half the fennel seeds, black pepper, nutmeg, oregano and fennel pollen, then mix this with the meat and fat until every piece has a little on it. Put in the freezer until the meat and fat are between 30°F and 40°F. Put your grinder parts (auger, dies, blades, etc) in the freezer, too, and put a bowl in the fridge.
• Grind half of the mixture through the coarse die on your grinder, and half through the fine die. This creates a more interesting texture. If your meat mixture is still at 35°F or colder, you can go right to binding. If it has heated up, you need to chill everything back down. Use this time to clean up the grinder.
• Once the meat is cold, put it in a large bin or bowl and add the remaining fennel seeds, white wine and parsley. Mix well with your (very clean) hands for 2 to 3 minutes -- a good indicator of temperature is that your hands should ache with cold when you do this. You want to to mix until the meat binds to itself. You can also do this in a stand mixer set on its lowest setting, but I find you don't get as good a bind as you do when you do this by hand.
• You now have Italian sausage. You can leave it loose, form it into patties, or link it. I link mine most of the time. Put the loose sausage into a stuffer and thread a casing onto it. Stuffing sausage is easier with two people, one to fill the links, the other to coil, but I do it solo all the time. Stuff the links well but not super-tight, as you will not be able to tie them off later if they are too full. Don't worry about air pockets yet. Stuff the whole casing, leaving lots of room on either end to tie them off; I leave at least three inches of unstuffed casing on either end of the coil.
• To form the individual links, tie off one end of the coil. Now pinch off two links of about six inches long. Rotate the link between your hands forward a few times. (Here's a quick video on making the links) Look for air pockets. To remove them, set a large needle or a sausage pricker into a stovetop burner until it glows (this sterilizes it), then pierce the casing at the air pockets. Twist the links a little and gently compress them until they are nice and tight. Repeat this process with the rest of the sausage.
• Hang your links on a wooden clothes drying rack for at least an hour, or up to overnight if you can hang them in a place that doesn't get any warmer than 40°F or so. This lets the links cure a little, filling their casings and developing flavor. Once you've taken the links off the hanger, they can be refrigerated for up to 3 or 4 days, or frozen for up to a year.

HOMEMADE SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE (MILD OR HOT)

Steps:

• Place the pork and red wine vinegar in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt, black pepper, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, paprika, red pepper flakes, fennel seed, brown sugar, oregano, and thyme. Knead until flecks of spice are evenly distributed through the sausage.
• Divide the sausage into thirds, and form into 3 logs; wrap each in plastic wrap. Place wrapped sausage into a freezer bag before freezing, or store in refrigerator for at least 12 hours before cooking.

AIR FRYER SAUSAGE (ITALIAN, LINKS, UNCOOKED)

Steps:

• Since Italian sausages are already preseasoned and have a higher fat content, you don't need to do any prep work for this recipe. I like to take the sausage out of the fridge for 5-10 minutes before cooking. Air Fryer Italian Sausage TemperatureCook on 360 F. Lay the sausage in a single layer on the air fryer basket, leaving room on all sides. No need to preheat the air fryer, just lay the sausages on the basket and put in at 360 F. Air Fry Sausage Cook TimeCook the Italian sausages in an air fryer oven for 6 minutes flip over, and continue cooking for 5-6 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160F. Some air fryer models could take slightly longer to cook. Be sure not to overcook the sausages as they'll start to shrivel and juices could start leaking out of the sausage. Remove the Italian sausages from the air fryer and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. It takes at least 5 minutes for the juices to redistribute evenly throughout the meat and make every bite juicy and moist. Enjoy!

HOMEMADE MILD ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Combine the pork butt, garlic, paprika, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, cayenne, anise, parsley, and red wine in a large bowl and toss well to coat. Refrigerate covered overnight or up to 24 hours.
• Pass the mixture through a meat grinder fitted with a medium die. (Alternately, transfer to a food processor in 2 batches and process until finely ground.) To test the seasoning, heat 1 teaspoon oil in a small skillet, and cook about 2 teaspoons of the mixture. Adjust seasonings, to taste.
• Using the sausage attachment on a mixer, stuff the meat into the casings, if being used. Twist and tie off to make 4-inch sausages. Alternately, shape into patties. Cook sausage in usual manner, making sure the internal temperature of the sausage links reaches at least 150 degrees F. Uncooked sausage can be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days or freeze and use within 3 months.

SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE RECIPE

Steps:

• In a spice grinder, grind black peppercorns and fennel seeds to a fine powder. (Skip this step if using pre-ground pepper and fennel seed.)
• Combine ground black pepper and fennel with the remaining dry spices in a bowl and mix together.
• Pour spice mixture and remaining ingredients onto the ground pork. Mix by hand until evenly distributed.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE RECIPE

Steps:

• Grind the meat through ⅜" (10 mm) plate.
• Add the spices, wine or water, and mix well, until the mixture becomes sticky.
• Stuff into 28 - 36 mm hog casings and tie into 5" (12 cm) links.
• If not cooking immediately, refrigerate, or vacuum seal and freeze for up to 3 months.
• Cook before serving. Best pan-fried, grilled or air-fried.

SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Cut the roast into chunks and run both the pork and bacon through a coarse grinding disk on a meat grinder.
• Thoroughly mix the spices into the meat and let sit for at least ½ hour. An hour or two is best. Then re-mix the meat and either stuff it into casings or package it the same as you would burger.