This homemade Italian sausage recipe combines a mixture of ground pork (or turkey) with seasonings and spices. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and a lot delicious!
What is Italian Sausage?
Traditional Italian sausage recipes can be made with different types of meat or seasonings and are usually high in fat and flavor. In North America, typical Italian sausage ingredients often include ground pork, fennel, and other seasonings. I frequently use bulk sausage to add to other dishes like lasagna or meat sauce. I like to make this sausage recipe with ground pork for great flavor and a little fat, although it has less than an Italian sausage link.
Flavor Makers for Italian Sausage
Meat: I love ground pork for sausage as it has a nice amount of fat and adds great flavor. You can also use ground turkey, beef, or chicken. If you have a local butcher, they often have mixtures of ground meat for sausage. Seasoning: The secret is in all the seasonings (most of which are found in homemade Italian seasoning). Fennel: Fennel seeds are really important in this recipe to give the sausage its signature flavor. You can use either whole or ground fennel (I use whole because it’s usually what I have on hand).
How to Make Homemade Italian Sausage
This Italian sausage recipe is intended to replace store-bought Italian sausage for browning in recipes. It doesn’t contain enough fat to create great Italian sausage links, but you can use it to make sausage patties if you’d like.
Storage & Leftovers
Raw pork can be kept in the fridge for 2 days or frozen for 2 months (more food safety info here). Keep in freezer bags with the date labeled on the outside. Cooked Italian sausage will keep about 2 months in the freezer and uncooked sausage will keep about 3 months.
Italian Sausage Recipes
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