Italian Sausage

[TXGunNut]

Just got thru breaking in my new Cabelas commercial meatgrinder, broke my old one starting sausage batch 2 (of 3) that I had planned this weekend. 'Net sale price was $80 less than store sale price, good thing I hit page print before I headed to the store. :-D 3/4 HP is plenty for me, took about 3 min to grind 12 lbs of meat. Couldn't feed it fast enough. Enough about my new toy.

Mike’s Spicy Italian Fennel Venison/Pork Sausage

Yep, it’s pretty spicy!

INGREDIENTS:

8 lbs of meat, preferably pork shoulder and venison in equal parts. Goal is a 4-1 ratio of lean meat to pork fat. Bone and cut into chunks around one inch.
3 tbs salt, some say iodine free is best
4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper
5 tbs minced broadleaf parsley-I used most of a small bundle with the stems removed
8 tbs crushed fennel seeds
1 head of garlic, 8 cloves or so

PREPARATION:

Crisp fennel seeds in a 325 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Chop garlic, toasted fennel seeds and parsley in a chopper or food processor. Thoroughly blend with meat chunks in a large bowl and all other spices in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Grind using the coarse/large plate of your food grinder. Thoroughly mix a second time and fry in butter or olive oil to verify proper seasoning.

[TXGunNut]

I generally use the sausage above to add to pizza or pasta sauce but every now and then I get to make lasagna!

Mike’s Italian Sausage Hearty Tomato Lasagna


Ingredients:


2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine
6 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 lb Italian sausage-removed from casings (I like my Italian fennel recipe, of course.)
¼ cup heavy cream
28 ozs canned tomato puree
28 ozs canned diced tomatoes
15 ozs ricotta cheese
2 ½ ozs grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tbs Italian seasoning herb blend-may use fresh herbs if available
1 tbs dried basil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp table salt
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
16 ozs shredded mozzarella cheese, whole milk or skim



Cooking Directions



Pre-heat oven to 375

Heat oil in large deep cast-iron skillet over medium heat, add onion and garlic. Cook and stir until softened-about 2-4 minutes. Add herb blend and cook/stir an additional 2-4 minutes. Increase heat to medium high and add sausage and cook, stirring and breaking up meat with wooden spoon. Cook until pink is gone but not brown-about 5-8 minutes. Add cream and simmer, stirring occasionally until liquid evaporates-about 5-8 minutes. Transfer meat mixture to saucepan and add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until flavors are blended, at least 30 minutes. Set sauce aside.

Mix ricotta, 1 cup Parmesan, basil, egg, salt and pepper in medium bowl with fork until well blended and creamy; set aside.

Coat bottom of 9X13 baking dish with ¼ cup meat sauce. Place 3 noodles on top of sauce .Drop 3 tbs ricotta mixture down center of each noodle. Spread evenly. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded mozzarella. Spoon 1 ½ cups meat sauce evenly over cheese.

Repeat layering of noodles, ricotta, mozzarella and sauce two more times. Place three remaining noodles on top of sauce, spread remaining sauce over noodles, sprinkle with remaining cup mozzarella, then with remaining ¼ cup Parmesan. Lightly spray a large sheet of foil with nonstick cooking spray and cover lasagna. Bake 30 minutes, remove foil. Return to oven and bake until sauce is bubbling and noodles are soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 10 minutes before serving.



This recipe borrows heavily from one by Cook’s Illustrated on Yahoo! Food website but I made numerous substitutions and a few corrections so I decided to write a recipe I could use.




Enjoy!

[gbrown]

Man, your making me hungry!! I use just about any kind of lasagna noodle. Have found that the steam/sauce cooks the pasta al dente. The only difference between mine and yours is that I use 2 eggs and add garlic powder and oregano (with all of your ingredients) to the cheese mixture. Too much garlic? No such animal!! We just finished some of this today. Thanks for sharing!!

[tomme boy]

I like to put my italian sausage in the smoker. I like to use apple wood for the last 1/2 hour of cooking to give a light smoke to them. It makes a very good sausage for Lasagna. I like to cook them in the smoker at 175 deg. This way they get the pink ring all the way through. Everyone that has tried it loves it.

[frankenfab]

TXGunNut, you're the man!

[TXGunNut]

Just a bump for Trey, Doc and Bob who asked me about this recipe on another thread. Made a batch last weekend as well as some brats and breakfast sausage. Brats were a Hi Mountain kit from Cabelas (very good!) and I've modified Alton Brown's recipe for breakfast sausage. I've got one happy freezer these days!

[Bodydoc447]

Thanks!!

Doc

[TXGunNut]

Enjoy!

[TXGunNut]

Started a batch of Italian sausage tonight, decided to revive the thread just in case anyone wants the recipe. Only change I've made is adding a glass or two of red wine, preferably burgundy. Last batch of wild pork. :-(

[Shiloh]

Wish I had a place to put it.
Thanks for the recipe.

Shiloh

[Moonie]

I'll have to try this one, thanks for the bump.

[MaryB]

Just saw a recipe for sausage stuffed sausage. Stuff your favorite frozen breakfast link sausage into italian sausage then cook indirect over medium heat

[DougGuy]

Go ahead on wit yo bad self TXGunNut! :bigsmyl2:

Great minds thinking alike:

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Hunting/Sausage%20Making/16lbsVenisonItalianSausage_zps4a6be78c.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Hunting/Sausage%20Making/16lbsVenisonItalianSausage_zps4a6be78c.jpg.html)

This is 16lbs hot Italian venison/pork sausage, it's what we do with roadkill here.

[Lloyd Smale]

one little hint for you guys making italian sausage and bratts. Allways let it sit in the fridge for two days before you package it and freeze it. It gives the meat time to absorb all the flavors evenly. I do two days and mix it up by hand twice a day.