🥩 Meats & Salumi Dishes · All over Italy
Fresh Italian sausage (salsiccia fresca)
Fresh sausage is meant to be cooked, not cured, so it's a safe and satisfying project for a home kitchen. Use roughly 70% lean shoulder to 30% fat. Season it the central-Italian way with fennel, or the southern way with chilli.
- Prep 40 min
- Cook 15 min
- Makes about 1 kg
Ingredients
- 700 g pork shoulder (lean)
- 300 g pork back fat or fatty belly
- 20–22 g fine salt (about 2–2.2% of the meat)
- 4 g black pepper, freshly ground
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed (optional)
- ½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- 1 small garlic clove, very finely grated (optional)
- 40 ml cold dry white wine
- About 2 m natural pork casings (32–36 mm), soaked
Method
- Keep the meat and fat very cold: freeze them for 20–30 minutes before grinding.
- Cut into cubes and grind through a coarse plate (6–8 mm).
- Add the salt, spices and cold wine, then mix by hand for a couple of minutes until the mixture feels slightly sticky.
- Fry a small test patty and adjust the seasoning.
- Stuff into the soaked casings with a sausage stuffer without overfilling. Twist into links every 12–15 cm and prick any air bubbles.
- Refrigerate and cook within 2 days, or freeze. Grill or pan-fry until cooked through (71 °C in the centre).
Tips
- Crumble it into a hot pan for the classic Italian sausage-and-friarielli panino.
- No casings? Shape the mixture into patties.
Sources
Rewritten in our own words from the traditional versions listed above. ← All recipes