Italian Sausage...Bow Chica Wow Wow

For June's Charcutepalooza challenge we were asked to make sausages. I had a good idea for a turkey sausage but in the end I opted to make Italian sausage. I went with sweet Italian sausage because it is my favorite and is the type of sausage I use the most in our house. I wanted to compare the taste difference between store bought and homemade. I pretty much knew what the outcome was going to be but I had to try anyway.

This is where I must warn you.  Let's call it a parental advisory of sorts. It is really hard to talk about making sausages without it coming out all kinds of dirty. In fact, I've been mentally putting this posting together in my head for awhile now and I still haven't come up with a completely "clean" way to do it. Perhaps there is a part of me that enjoys the double entendres a little too much. If you'll get offended by that sort of thing, then this isn't the post you should be reading. I'm sure that almost everyone who is involved in this challenge had the same problem this month. Either way, you have now been warned.

It all started with a call to my butcher. I ordered the 5 lbs. of pork shoulder and 10 feet of hog casings that I would be using. Needless to say, I was both excited and nervous about this challenge. Using real pig intestines can make anybody a bit squeamish. I also wasn't sure how strong intestines were and if I would be blowing holes in the casings when I stuffed them with the meat. But hey, what can you do? Sometimes you just have to dive right in.

Since last month I made a merguez bulk sausage, I felt confident in my skills for making the actual sausage. While the kids were in the backyard playing with the hubby I ground out 5 lbs. of sweet Italian sausage following the directions laid out in Charcuterie: the Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. When I was done making the bulk sausage, I sauteed a few test patties for the family. The reactions I got ranged from "mmmm" to my daughter Naiya coming and wrapping her arms around me to give me a hug. That's right, I managed to render a pre-teen girl speechless. Now if that doesn't speak volumes for how good this sausage is, I don't know what will.

Once that part was done, my husband and I re-read the directions in Mrs. Wheelbarrow's blog on how to stuff the sausage into the casings, which I found to be absolutely essential to my success in this venture. And no, I'm not brown nosing here. Even if you are stumbling into this blog a year from now and want to attempt to make a cased sausage on your own, she gives great tips and wonderful pictures to go along with her explanation of the process. One suggestion was to freeze the bulk sausage for 1/2 an hour prior to stuffing. So, I formed the meat into sausage shapes and put it in the freezer to firm up before I stuffed it in the casings. As I was preparing the casings, my daughter Naiya wandered into the kitchen. It was one of those times as a parent that I knew without a doubt what was about to occur. And I was right.

"Whatcha doin'?" She asked as she sauntered over to the kitchen sink.
"I'm getting the casings ready for when Dad and I make the sausages tonight." I was hoping this would be enough information for her and she would leave it alone. But, no.
"What are they made of? Plastic?" She inquired.
You have to understand something about me as a parent. If one of my children asks me a question, I answer it. It's just how I roll. So I answered.
"No, they are not plastic, they are pig intestines." At this point I could feel her recoil next to me. She wanted to believe that I was lying, kidding, trying to gross her out, but she knew by my matter-of-fact tone that I was completely serious, and she was horrified. She took a step back, her lip curled slightly in her disgust.
"Like, real pig intestines!! EWW!!! Couldn't you just order some of the plastic ones?!" (She was trying to find a way out.)
"I suppose I could have, but I didn't." I decided at this point that I would attempt to appeal to the side of her that is always talking about how our society is so wasteful and how she wishes that she could live like the Indians did. "Naiya, I thought not wasting things is important to you."
"It is...but mom.."
"Well I'm not wasting here. We are using all the parts of the animal that we can." At this point she realized there was no way out; she would have to endure putting a pig intestine into her mouth and swallowing it. I think she was hoping to die before the next night's dinner. Fortunately, it was bedtime and the conversation came to an end.

After all the kids were in bed, and my husband and I had fortified ourselves with a good drink, we headed into the kitchen to make the sausages. Everything was prepped and ready to go. With a grin and a giggle we lubricated the stuffer attachment for the Kitchen Aid. In the next hour there were a lot of "That's what she said" comments until I literally had tears rolling down my face and my sides hurt from laughing so hard. What can I say? We have fun together. I would get the casing ready as he lubed the stuffer. Then I would slide the casing on the stuffer and he would feed the meat into the stuffer as I directed it into the casing. In the end, our efforts paid off - the longer we did it the more confident we got, and the better the sausages came out.

I think making stuffed sausages really is a two person job. I can't imagine what it would have looked like if I had tried to do all of it by myself. I just wish there had been a third person to photograph everything. Video would have been even better.

Regardless, you can see the finished product.  I was surprised that we were able to pull it off so well our first time out. There were hardly any air pockets, and the few that were there were very small and located at the ends of the sausages, so they were a cinch to get out. None of the casings tore or were loose. I thought the marbling in the meat from the fat looked spot on. I already knew how good they tasted. Plus, the cost! It cost a dollar less per pound of sausage to make them at home. It is important to note that I am comparing the cost to standard store bought sweet Italian sausages, not a specialty sausage. While the meat I used in making ours was from a local pig farmer that raised his pigs organically. Plus, we have so much more than I would have bought. So, I froze them in layers separated by parchment paper.

My next challenge was what to do with them. I have a ton of recipes that use Italian sausage. All of them are great, but none of them are mine. I really wanted to come up with something special for all the hard work we had put in. I tried to come up with another fusion recipe, but in my mind, the seasonings that go into sweet Italian sausages are hard to mix with other ethnic foods. Italian sausage is...Italian. So I embraced it. I decided for the first go around to do something we've probably all had before, Sweet Italian Sausage sandwiches, on a homemade roll, slathered with homemade mustard, and piled high with sauteed peppers and onions. Oh yeah.

And those were good. Like, really really good. But I still wanted to come up with something that was a bit... more. I started rolling ideas around in my head and this is what I came up with...

Deconstructed Pesto with a Saute of Sausage, Peppers, and Onions

(Serves 6)

Ingredients for basil pasta (makes one pound):

• 1 1/2 Tbs. of olive oil
• 1/3 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup semolina flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 3 eggs; at room temperature

Directions for basil pasta:

1. In the bowl of a food processor puree the basil leaves and the olive oil. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl combine the semolina flour, all purpose flour, and salt. Mix until well Incorporated. Make a well in the center of the flours. Crack the eggs into the well and add in the basil puree. Using a fork, blend the ingredients in the well, slowly drawing in the flour until everything is combined into a dough.
3. Dust a clean work surface with flour and transfer the dough to that surface. Knead the dough until it feels smooth, about 8- 10 minutes.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1/2 an hour.
5. Using either a pasta machine or a rolling pin roll out your pasta and cut it into fettucini width noodles.
6. At this point the pasta can be used or frozen for later use.

Ingredients:

• Basil pasta
• 1 Tbs. of butter
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1/2 a cup of half & half
• 8 cloves of garlic; roasted and mashed in a bowl with a fork
• 1 egg yolk; slightly beaten
• 4 oz. parmesan cheese; grated. Plus more for topping
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 yellow onion; sliced thin
• 1 red pepper; sliced thin
• 4 sweet Italian sausage links; sliced into 3/4 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup pine nuts; toasted. For topping

Directions:

1. Set a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring it to a rolling boil.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. Add the heavy cream, the half and half, and whisk in the roasted garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the cream is reduced by 1/4, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir a generous spoonful of the cream into a bowl with the egg yolk, , then return the mixture to the saucepan with the rest of the cream, mixing well. Add in the parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set on a back burner with a lid on to keep warm.
4. In a large saute pan over medium heat warm the oilve oil. Once the olive oil is heated add in the sweet Italian sausage. Once the sausage is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove the sausage from pan with a slotted spoon, to a plate and set aside. In the same saute pan now add the pepper and onion. Saute until softened, about 10 minutes. Put the sausage back in the pan and mix it into the pepper and onion.
5. While the pepper an onion are sauteing cook the basil pasta. Remember that since you are using fresh pasta it will only take a couple of minutes for the pasta to cook.
6. Drain pasta and place it in a serving bowl. Mix half of the roasted garlic cream sauce into the pasta then pour the remaining half over the pasta. Top with the sausage, pepper, and onion saute. Finish with a sprinkling of parmesan and pine nuts. Serve immediately.

Get a printable version of this recipe here.

For those of you that have ever scratched your heads wondering what a deconstructed meal is, my deconstructed pesto is a good example. I took a dish's ingredients (in this case pesto), broke them apart, and prepared them separately and in a new and different way. Then I put them back together on the same plate to form a new dish.

This is a really good, really special meal. If you make the pasta ahead of time and freeze it, then this is not a  very difficult meal to put together, though no one will guess that when they sit down at the table. And Naiya didn't seem to have any troubles getting over her "casing phobia."