Homemade Italian Sausage
One of my earliest and most vivid food memories was when my uncle Bill would make his famous dried Italian sausage every Christmas Eve. They'd be fried after Midnight Mass and served on bread with roasted red peppers. This fresh version was inspired by those. If you can manage not to eat them right away, letting them dry for a day or two really deepens the flavor, and firms up the texture as well, in true Uncle Billy fashion.
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Recipe Summary
Ingredients
Directions
Chef's Notes:
You can also grind meat in a food processor, and there are plenty of videos out there showing how, but then you'll have to get a sausage stuffer.
For a little nicer flavor, you can toast the fennel seeds in a dry pan just until you begin to smell them. This goes for any other whole spices you may want to grind and toss in.