You cannot get easier than Italian Sausage made in a food processor. It’s moist and juicy and full of flavor.
Funny story. When I was in high school, my best friend would tell me about the Italian butcher her mother would go to to get sausage. Her mother’s family knew the butcher’s family as they had all gone to school together, went to the same church, and went to the same social Italian events. My friend told me that she had noticed the sausage would sometimes be very, very spicy, and others not so much. One day, we accompanied her mother to get sausages. She bought us the best deli sandwiches I have ever had. I was spending the weekend and we had the sausages for breakfast the next morning. My friend’s father nodded his head as he chewed then said, “Yeah, I heard that Joe and his wife finally got a divorce. Good thing, too. The angrier he was at her, the hotter the sausage!”
You don’t have to be angry to make this sausage. You just need some pork, fennel, and a food processor. I like the Braun food processor because I can control the speed, on both pulse and continuous. If you want to make sausages in skins, you can use a food grinder with an attachment, but for plain old patties like this, the food processor is fine.
I made this when I had bought some a slice of the pig leg. It had lots of meat, skin, and lots of fat. I made lard out of the fat, and sausage out of the trimmings. You can ask your butcher for trimmings to make your own.
Seasoning for Italian Sausage
Italian sausage always has fennel in it. Fennel is also used to make licorice. It has a unique flavor that goes so well with pork. I also used some Penzey’s spices, Basil and Tuscan Sunset. I like my sausage with a little bite so I added a pinch of crushed chili pepper, too. The good thing about making your own sausage is you can flavor it any way you want.
Email Me the Recipe
Italian Sausage
Equipment
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Ingredients
- 1 pound pork, trimmings with fat
- 1 tablespoon Garlic powder
- 2 tablespoon Fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon Tuscan Sunset
- 1 teaspoon Basil
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper, freshly ground
- 1 teaspoon Chili flakes, optional
Instructions
- Mise En Place
- Make sure the pork is as cold as possible without being frozen.
- Put the pork and the seasonings in the bowl of the food processor.
- Pulse grind the food processor until the meat is ground and begins to form a ball.
- Stop the processor and shape the mixture into patties.
- You can freeze or refrigerate the sausage until you are ready to cook it.
- To cook it, put it in a saute pan and brown it on one side, flip and brown it on the other side. It should read 160 F/ 71 C on an instant-read thermometer when done. Enjoy!
