Italian Sausage

Recipe from Elena Davis

Italian sausage is a versatile ingredient for pizzas, spaghetti sauce, soups & stews, sausage crumbles, sausage patties, stuffed into casings, in stuffed peppers and pasta, and many other uses, enlivened by the flavour of fennel and garlic. Making it at home gives the advantage of controlling quality and providing your own spice profile.

Yields:

8 servings

Time Required:

• 5 mins. prep. time
• 10 mins. cooking time

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. ground¹ pork²
• 2 ½ tsp.³ Italian sausage seasoning (below)
• salt and ground pepper to taste
• 1-2 Tbsp. dry red wine or beef broth
• (for spicy sausage) 2 ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper powder

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl, place ground meat, then add red wine or beef broth.

Sprinkle Italian sausage seasoning evenly, and add salt and black pepper to taste.

Mix thoroughly using a tablespoon or your hands, being careful not to overwork the meat, which would render the sausage dense.

Cover and refrigerate at least 5 hours, or up to 24 hours.

Italian sausage seasoning

• Italian seasoning mix⁴, consisting of:
  • 2 Tbsp. dried basil
  • 2 Tbsp. dried oregano
  • 2 Tbsp. dried rosemary
  • 2 Tbsp. dried marjoram
  • 2 Tbsp. dried thyme
  • 2 Tbsp. dried parsley
  • 2 Tbsp. dried sage
  • 1 Tbsp. dried red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 tsp. fennel seeds, whole or lightly crushed
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. ground pepper
• ½ tsp. crushed red pepper (to taste)
• ½ tsp. ground coriander
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg (optional, for depth)

Cook's Notes:

To use in sausage crumbles, cook in skillet over medium heat, breaking sausage apart as it browns. To use as patties, shape into desired sizes and cook 3-4 mins. per side until brown. To make into links, stuff mix into natural casings using a sausage stuffer, then twist to close.

Raw sausage can be stored in an airtight container, refrigerated, for up to 3 days, or frozen as patties or crumble in sealed bags for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in refrigerator before using.

¹ I bought ground meat for decades before realising how quick and easy it is to grind (deboned) meat in a food processor, producing better, fresher, and cheaper food.

² Pork is most common, but chicken, turkey, lamb, or beef will also do fine.

³ Cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons are as defined in US Customary Units, not to be confused with differing British imperial, "legal", "coffee", Commonwealth of Nations, Canadian, Latin American, Japanese, Russian, or Dutch definitions — further proof that everyone needs the metric system.

⁴ With scaled-down quantities, this dry mix makes a superior alternative to pre-made commercial Italian spice mixes for your spice cabinet. If you want a smoother mixture, pulse it in a spice grinder. Your cooking will be improved by acquiring a spice grinder, and thereafter buying/storing only whole spices, grinding only as/when needed. Ground spices go flavourless quickly, even in tightly sealed jars.

I learned my lesson on this, from making Scandinavian traditional sweet breads with cardamom: The years-old ground cardomom in my spice rack turned out to be nearly tasteless. Lesson learned.

Excellent herbs and whole (or ground) spices can be bought online from Penzey's Spices, among others. Penzey's also offers its own mixes, such as a nice (but simpler) Italian Sausage Seasoning mix, if you'd rather not DIY.

Don't worry too much about missing ingredients. Extra oregano can fill in for missing marjoram, extra thyme or rosemary for missing sage, Leaving out rosemary and red pepper merely makes the mix milder. Adding lemon pepper or dried fennel seeds adds a zesty kick. Adding extra garlic or onion powder adds extra depth.

Of the herbs listed, basil is slightly peppery and sweet with a fresh aroma. Oregano is bold and earthy with a hint of lemon. Rosemary is piney, woody, and fragrant. Marjoram is earthy, mild, and sweet. Thyme is subtly minty, lemony, and earthy. Parsley is fresh, grassy, and bright. Sage is warm, peppery, and earthy.

---

Taken from: https://www.cucinabyelena.com/homemade-italian-sausage-recipe-easy/, as Elena Davis's May 27, 2025 recipe. Thank you!

Collected and re-published at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/recipes/italian-sausage.html by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> on Dec. 19, 2025. Individual recipes are free from copyright. Share and enjoy!

(If I have any copyright title in my own very minor contributions to this page — not my intention — they were created in 2025 by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> and licensed for use under CC0. I have thereby waived all copyright, compilation copyright, and related or neighbouring rights to this work. This work is published from: United States of America.)