Weekend Experiment

This weekend, after seeing an episode of Ciao Italia featuring homemade sausage, we decided to try making our own at home.  It didn't seem that difficult, and the idea of being able to control spice and salt content were intriguing.  (there is also a serious 'cool factor' to knowing you made it your self)

Homemade Italian sausage with wilted spinach

The Verdict:

This was an easy project, made easier by having a great butcher who could grind the meat to the right consistency for us and stocked casings.

To 4 lbs of coarsely ground pork butt we added:
1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 tbs toasted fennel seeds
1 tsp fennel pollen
2 tsp Aleppo chili pepper flakes

A few tips:  Once you have all the spices incorporated, fry up a little bit of the mixture to test the spices.  We linked half the mixture as above, and then added to the remaining 2 lbs. some spicy Hungarian paprika, and garlic.

To cook, we added 2 cups of water to a large saucepan, and simmered the sausage until gray all over, then drained the water and let the sausage brown.  While the sausage was sitting to be sliced, we filled the pan with spinach and let it just wilt.  Delicious!