How to Make Your Own Italian Sausage

Try homemade Italian sausage.

One of the most delicious and convenient ways to enjoy "leftover" cuts of meat, sausage meat, is also a creative treat for the chefs who make it. One of the most popular forms of sausage is Italian style, made from ground pork and a classic selection of Italian herbs. Create a simple ground sausage with mere mixing or go "whole hog" by forming your own shaped sausage links in casings. Serve this sausage with pasta or as part of an Italian sub sandwich.

Things You'll Need

• 2 pounds pork butt or ground pork
• Meat grinder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons dried fennel seed
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon each of dried oregano, basil, and rosemary
• 1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (optional)
• Lard or shortening
• Funnel with large spout
• Sausage casings

Instructions

1. Grind the sausage meat in the meat grinder. (Skip this step if the meat is already ground.)

2. Add all dry ingredients to the ground meat. Add the red pepper for spicy sausage or omit for mild sausage.

3. Mix the meat and seasonings with your hands. Stir and knead the meat thoroughly, pulling up from the bottom of the bowl to ensure that there is an even distribution of seasonings throughout the meat.

4. Apply shortening or lard to the end of the funnel. Rub the grease generously over the entire length and tip of the funnel's narrow end; this will help the case slide, rather than stick while it is filled.

5. Wrap a sausage casing on the end of the funnel. Open the end of the casing and wrap it around the tip of the funnel (like putting on a sock). Gently tug and bunch up the casing upon the funnel's end, so it's wrapped to the other end, leaving only an inch or so of casing hanging off the end; this will allow the casing to fill from the bottom.

6. Fill the sausage casing. Hold the funnel on its side on waxed paper and fill it with ground meat. Push the ground meat into the bottom of the bowl of the funnel until the meat begins to extrude evenly and fill the casing. Fill the casings, so they bulge very slightly but do not burst. Tug more length of casing down and off the funnel tip and fill it as you go. Continue until all but the last inch or so of the casing is full.

7. Separate the filled casing into individual sausages by twisting the filled casing. Twist off the ends and trim away any excess casing.

References

• "The Best Recipe"; Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine; 1999