Sausage, Sausage, And More Sausage

Four different fresh sausage

I am wearing a huge smile on my face.  Just the sight of those beautiful sausages makes me happy, brightens my day, and makes my taste buds tingle.  Top left is my fennel sausage; underneath, garlic sausage; in the middle, Italian sweet sausage; and both those babies on the right are Merguez sausages.  The casings for the Merguez had a hole so I had to stop, tie off, and finish with a smaller sausage.

This is my first time making sausage.  I never knew it could be so easy.  Actually, stuffing them, with a Kitchen Aid, is not easy without help.  That is one lesson I learned.  It's difficult trying to guide the sausage casing with one hand while stuffing in the meat with the other hand.  Also, pushing the meat into the sausage stuffer has to be somewhat continuous or the sausage becomes lumpy and filled with air pockets.  Of course, maybe that problem is related to oiling the worm.

Another lesson learned is that there is a very good reason for oiling the worm well, because otherwise the meat sticks to it, which means stopping and washing everything in the middle of making sausage or building my own arm muscles by forcing more meat to go through the stuffer.  Well, I have another batch of meat ready to go so I'll see if I learned my lessons.

Keeping the casing in lukewarm water before threading it onto the stuffer also helps. Otherwise, it's hard work and provides potential for the casing to tear.  So, having someone to help stuff the sausage, oiling the worm, and keeping the casings wet were my three most important lessons.  They were techniques I had never known before.

As for the recipes, well, I borrowed freely and must give proper due to the providers.  So far my favorite recipe is from Mrs. Wheelbarrow whose Merguez sausage recipe is soooo goooood!  She mentioned the merguez in this month's grinding challenge, but I first saw her recipe as a Food52 winner.  After seeing the comments that others left, I decided not to change anything.  Mrs. Wheelbarrow's spice mixture is incredible and I'm sure it will find its way into other dishes.  I don't know what harissa she uses, but I had some DEA harissa that I had picked up at The Basque Market on a trip to Boise.  They don't seem to have it in their online store but I've noticed that Amazon carries it.

Well, I did kind of change one thing.  I added about 1/3 c. of my pork shoulder butt to the lamb because I didn't want to end up with dry sausage.  I only had ground lamb left in my freezer because we had eaten all the lamb shoulder and I wasn't sure of the fat content, so, in went the pork.  In order to honor Moroccan tradition, I probably should have added oil or maybe duck fat in respect for the pork taboo.  Impulsively, however, I threw in the pork.  And to make it worse, I did it again in the second batch I have waiting to be ground.  I'm not sure what a good pork alternative would be.  I'm not crazy about lamb fat - it just isn't tasty. 

I borrowed the Italian sweet sausage and the garlic sausage recipes from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie.  I did add a bit more hot pepper to the Italian sausage recipe, and, after frying a taste sample of the garlic sausage, decided to throw in some garlic granules in order to satisfy my garlic cravings.  Both of these are very good but next time I would toast and grind the fennel for the Italian sausage and double the amount of garlic for the garlic sausage.

Finally, the fennel sausage recipe came from Joyce Goldstein's The Mediterranean Kitchen.  This recipe called for toasting the fennel and it was delicious in the sausage!  She also has recipes in there for other sausages including Portuguese Linguisa, Greek Loukanika, Spanish Chorizo, and Calabrese Lucanica.  Wow, the Lucanica combines both pork and lamb!  I have found a match that I have to try!  I can see this is going to be the summer of sausage.

Italian Sausage and Lentil Soup

And this is how it began.  Clockwise from top left:  brown lentils from the Palouse; my homemade "passata"; my quickly defrosting chard from my garden; my homemade mild Italian sausage out of the casing; my sausage in the casing; my friend, Marsha's, beautiful garlic and onions; kosher salt; and sour cream.  All together they make soup.

I once had a soup similar to this at La Cucina, Cucina in Spokane, WA.  I loved it and this is the duplicate I came up with at home.  The sausage is so flavorful that I don't add any other herbs to the soup.  The heat from the sausage is just enough.  It is a soup in which every ingredient has its separate place on the tongue so that each individual flavor can be found but the overall flavor is rich and mellow with just enough hot spiciness and deliciousness that it's hard to stop eating before that feeling of being sated sets in.

To make the soup, I saute one large or several small onions, garlic (at least five or more cloves, crushed), and sausage (I take it out of the casing).  Then I add the chard, followed by the passata and enough water to allow the lentils to expand with a bit more for a soupier texture.  After it cooks for a while, I check for seasoning.  If it needs more salt, which it usually does, I salt to taste.  Actually, I bring it to the saltier side because after adding the sour cream some of the saltiness is absorbed by the cream.

I usually make a large batch of soup because I like to put the excess into one pint glass canning jars, screw on any old lid, and stick it into our chest freezer to have at some future date.  The one pint jars are just enough for one person because, of course, I have to leave at least an inch of head room so that the frozen soup doesn't break the glass.  For this batch I used one pound of lentils, three medium onions, eight cloves of garlic, about three cups of frozen chard, two heaping tablespoons of passata, twelve cups of water, and about a half to three quarters cup of sour cream.


Italian Sausage and Lentil Soup


Spinach or any other flavorful green can be substituted for the chard.  The sour cream is added at the end to help blend the flavors and mellow the contrasts in flavors.  I call my canned, roasted, pureed tomatoes a passata.  In my mind it's a true passata but I've seen other definitions.  At the end of summer, just before the big frost should hit, I strip my tomato plants of all tomatoes no matter what color they are.  The under ripe greens are separated from the rest of the tomatoes and allowed to ripen in my sun room.  I can usually make some last into the very first days of December.

The passata is the perfect dish to make in the evening and finish the next morning.  The ripe tomatoes are rinsed, dried, and ready to cut.  I cut out the stem end and any flaws.  Into a large casserole or baking dish, I drizzle some olive oil.  Then I add the tomatoes, and whatever else moves me that evening.  Sometimes I also add some garlic or onions or even balsamic vinegar.  I cook it all at 325 F until about half the juice of the tomatoes is gone.  The tops are always dark and well carmelized.  Then I leave it to cool in the oven until the next morning.

Whenever I get around to it the next morning, I throw the whole mess into my Cuisinart so that I don't have to worry about skins and seeds.  I pack it into sterilized, wet canning jars with some lemon juice (depending on the size of the jar).  The lemon juice insures that the tomatoes have enough acidity so that they don't spoil.  I always check my Ball or Kerr canning book to remind myself of how much lemon juice.  Yes, I have reached a point in my life when so much is in the very gray brain cells that it's always easier to just re-check my memory because I certainly don't want to kill myself eating my own canned goods!  Finally, I finish off the canning in a boiling water bath.  The tops seal and they go into my root cellar (a cool, dark place).  I use the "passata" in soups, stews, sauces, and even as a topping for crostini.

I have to have bread with my soup.  I make my own bread.  The one pictured happens to be Jim Lahey's (Sullivan Bakery, NYC) No Knead Bread.  I make it with sourdough starter, water, beer, and whatever flour I'm in the mood for.  The one pictured has unbleached white, kamut, and flax seed meal.  It loved the soup and I loved it all!  Yummy!