Italian Fennel Sausage Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is fennel sausage made of? ›

Description. Ground pork simply flavored with red pepper flakes, fennel seed and garlic! Perfect for adding to any recipe (especially Italian recipes) that call for sausage!

Satisfy your cravings with Caputo's Italian Sausage Without Fennel, a meat lover's dream. Made from high-quality pork, this sausage is expertly crafted without any fennel for those who prefer a milder taste.

In North America, Italian sausage (Italian: salsiccia, Italian: [salˈsittʃa]) most often refers to a style of pork sausage. The sausage is often noted for being seasoned with fennel or anise as the primary seasoning.

A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs, may be included as fillers or extenders.

For example, Italians often eat fennel raw at the end of a meal, saying it helps with digestion and cleansing.

The main ingredients of a sausage are meat, fat, binding agents and water. There are three stages involved in preparing them: mincing the meat and fat, mixing the different ingredients together and filling. Filing is where the mixture is put into the casing.

Mix in your favourite combination of herbs and spices.

Paprika, basil, and thyme is a delicious combination. A mixture of sage, marjoram, and chilli works well.

It is a penicillin-based mold similar to the white mold you will find on a fine cheese like a French Brie or Camembert. It's a natural part of the fermentation process of producing artisanal salumi, and the salami mold has its own flavor and flora.

INGREDIENTS. Pork, Water, Contains 2% Or Less: Corn Syrup, Salt, Natural Flavor, Vinegar, Sugar, Sea Salt, Paprika, Pork Broth.

Caraway. If you find yourself with a recipe that calls for whole fennel seeds to be left in the final product, like in homemade sausage, caraway seeds are the perfect swap. They're very similar in taste to fennel seeds and look almost identical.

Why does Italian sausage taste different? ›

The main difference in Italian sausage when compared to other sausages is the seasoning. The particular ingredient that usually sets Italian sausage apart is fennel. This is a licorice scented herb that gives Italian sausage its unique taste that is different than other types of sausage.

Every processed meat product has a traditional product characteristic. Traditionally, Italian sausage contains fennel and black pepper. Typically the black pepper used in Italian sausage is a coarser particle size than you find in fresh pork sausage. Fennel is the spice that gives Italian sausage its Italian flavor.

In this case, fortunately, the answer is simple: the correct word in Italian is salsiccia. According to the Accademia della Crusca, the right form is sausage because it derives from the Latin salsicia.

Fennel is a member of the carrot family, though it's not a root vegetable. The base of its long stalks weave together to form a thick, crisp bulb that grows above ground. Above the bulb, at the tip of the stalks, it has light, feathery leaves that resemble dill.

Fennel has a very mild anise or licorice flavor that can be enhanced or sweetened depending on how it is cooked (or not cooked). When diced and sauteed with onions as one of the first steps when making a soup or stew, fennel becomes very sweet.

Additions to the basic sausage mix vary from classic seasonings such as onions, garlic, herbs and spices (parsley, fennel, allspice) to more luxurious flavourings such as truffle.

Sausage casing, also known as sausage skin or simply casing, is the material that encloses the filling of a sausage. Natural casings are made from animal intestines or skin; artificial casings, introduced in the early 20th century, are made of collagen and cellulose.