Homemade Hot Italian Sausage!

It's easy to make sausage and you don't even need one of those crazy machines to squeeze the goo thru into some caseing made of mysterious intestinal fabric... Don't get me wrong - I'm not a snausage hater, it's probably just for the best if I don't overthink the whole process and procedures for making a link!  So when I saw this recipe in the April 2012 Chatelaine Magazine - I knew I had to make it BUT I knew I was going to make it with a leaner cut - a pork tenderloin, rather than the ground pork that you would buy from the grocery store.  I asked the butcher and he told me that they actually do add fat to the mix to make it juicier - no sir, not for me!!  So I whipped out my trusty food processor and made my own ground pork!

Hot Italian Sausage (adapted from Chatelaine Magazine)
Ingredients:
1 medium pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
2 tsp ground fennel
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 dried red chilis, ground

Method:
Make sure all of the spices are ground together (I made sure to keep some bigger fennel seed chunks b/c I love biting into them in the sausage).   Set aside.

Cut the tenderloin up into about 4 or 5 large pieces and chuck into the food processor.  Pulse until it's coarsely chopped then add the spices - keep pulsing until it looks like the ground meet you would pick up at the butchers.

Wondering if you have the spices right?  Here's a little trick - heat up a non-stick frying pan and fry up a couple of tablespoon shized mini-meatballs.  Cook until brown and no longer pink inside - take a taste - if you're satisfied with the amount of spice, garlic, pepper, etc then you're good to go!  If not, add some more of what's missing (for me on this batch, it wasn't spicy enough, so I upped the amount of chili!)

World's smallest frying pan - about 5" in diameter!
Not a doll's frying pan either!

Divide the meat mixture into 2 halves and then roll into little meat logs - twist at the ends, place in a ziplock and freeze until ready to use (but at least 2 hours!)

When you're ready to cook with your snausage, remove from freezer and let stand for about 20 minutes.  You can cook crumbled in a sauce like I did, or slice and pan fry. 

To make a super easy pasta sauce, cook one of the sausage logs in a tablespoon of oil, breaking up as it cooks.  I also added a chopped up red bell pepper and a can of San Marzano tomatoes.  Cook through for about 25 minutes and serve over your fave pasta! 

I reserved a cup of the meat sauce for stuffed peppers later in the week!

Watch for Quinoa Stuffed Peppers later this week!