Every Italian family has their own recipe for making sausages. This is mine.
My family would rear a pig especially for the annual family sausage-making ritual, a two-day event that was as much a family get together as it was a sausage-making process.
A great Italian sausage is judged by the balance of seasonings and spices, usually added by eye rather than by a written recipe, and the perfect ratio of fat to lean meat. It might seem complex, but in actual fact, once you know the correct ratio of seasonings, these are quite easy to make yourself with the help of a good butcher.
Ask your butcher for coarsely ground pork mince for making Italian sausages and he’ll make sure it has the right amount of fat and lean meat you need. He should also be able to give you the casings needed for the amount of mince you order.
You also need a sausage stuffer. These are available as attachments for most stand mixers, or you can buy fairly inexpensive stand-alone ones. If you don’t have a sausage stuffer you can just form the mixture into skinless sausages, or add some breadcrumbs and egg to make mind-blowing patties or meatballs. You could also fry off the mixture in a little olive oil, add some basic tomato sauce and you’ve got a delicious spicy pork ragu to serve with pasta .
I hope you get just as much enjoyment out of these sausages as my family has over the years, and maybe you too will go all out and make it an annual event with your family filled with love, laughter, memories and plenty of sausages to last the year.
The recipe is for 1kg of meat – so multiply accordingly depending on how many you want to make.
Cacciatore Sausages
Ingredients
Method
- Spread the pork out onto a large clean surface. Dust all the spices and seasonings over the top, then use your hands to fold the mince over and over to distribute evenly.
- Add ½ glass each of the white and red wine. Mix. If the mixture seems dry add the extra ½ glass of each. This is dependent on the moisture in the pork you’re using. You want it to feel soft and mushy, but not wet.
- Thread the casing over the end of the sausage stuffer and tie the end. Place some meat in the chute and crank the handle, pushing the meat down and into the casing, holding firmly and ensuring it is packed firmly, but not too tight, keep it slow and let it feed through steadily.
- Once you finish feeding all the mince through, tie a knot right at the base of where the casing is filled to. Make it snug.
- Twist the sausage-filled casing a couple of time at roughly 20cm intervals to make shorter sausages.
- Either cook like any other sausage straight away, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- If you want to dry them, tie a piece of butchers string on each end and suspend in a cool dark place for 6 weeks. This should only be done in winter, as the temperature needs to be cold for effective drying. This is why Italians do the big ‘sausage making day’ on one day in winter every year. Once dry, they store for a year. Refrigerate once cut.
Recipe from my book – Easy Home Cooking Italian Style, New Holland Publishers, Photo – Jonathan VDK
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