Recipe for Homemade Italian Beef Sausages

If you have been wondering why I have not been sharing as many recipes as I usually do, there are a few reasons why this is the case:

• Recipe testing and creating cost money 
• Our budget is getting tighter and tighter
• So many recipes suck

Yup, I said it. I look at a recipe and think, oh, that sounds healthy, affordable and easy. Let’s try that one.

You end up with a HUGE pot of food you do not want to eat. This is a vegetarian stew with quinoa I tried that had lots of herbs and spices. I really thought it was going to be a winner but Reg said it best, “How can a dish with so much texture and stuff have no flavour?”

Determined to not throw out all that food, I asked myself, “What would Mom do?”

I heard her quite clearly, “ADD MEAT!”

You got it Mom!

The Recipe

I decided to make my own beef Italian sausages. Well, OK, meatballs at this point. I normally just cut up the sausages anyway so why not? It had all the flavours of the sausage and that is what counts.

I toasted 1 tsp fennel seeds in a shallow pan over low heat until fragrant. I let them cool.

I used my spice grinder which is a coffee grinder to grind down the seeds as much as it could.

To a pound of lean ground beef I added 1 tbsp of hot smoked paprika. This made a very HOT sausage so if you want to go milder, use 3/4 tsp regular smoked paprica.

I added some chopped parsley, 1 clove of crushed garlic and seasoned with 1 1/2 tsp salt and some freshly ground pepper. I mixed together with my hands but handled gently. You should let meat sit covered in the fridge for a while to let flavours meld but I was in a hurry.

I made a few small meatballs and sautéd in a hot pan with some olive oil.

I browned them on all sides and then finished them in a 350F oven for 10 minutes.

As I said, these were HOT! Too hot for me but they definitely added more flavour to the veggie stew to make it more edible. Thank goodness!

Pizza Perfection

The next day I just cooked up some of the meat and used it as a topping for a pizza with my super fast, easy & tasty pizza sauce.

Made one of the best pizzas I have ever had! So good!!! Mom was right, as usual. Meat really adds flavour and spiced meat takes food to a whole new level.

Sausage Odyssey Continues

Thanks to KitchenAid, I am now able to make REAL sausages! I already had the KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment (watch unboxing and product testing video here) but they sent me their Sausage Stuffer Kit Attachment. I am so excited! To make my owns sausages from scratch? What could be better.

Tomorrow I will share the technique, the story, the challenges of making your own sausage. I had tech issues attack my kitchen but I did it. I used this recipe and made my own sausages from scratch. One of the coolest foodie days for me ever. Thank you KitchenAid!