Italy is the home of some of the world’s most popular sausages, including bologna, salami, and pepperoni. Since these three are popular as cold cuts and sandwich meats in America and other parts of the world, I have covered them in chapter 15, Deli Fare and Cold Cuts (page 227). Don’t worry. There’s still enough good eating left to distinguish Italy in the world of sausage. It all started long ago.
Ancient Roman Sausage
Apicius, the ancient culinary sport, gave us the work Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome —our oldest extant cookbook. The Romans adopted the sausage from the ancient Greeks, who had a profound influence on the food and cookery of southern Italy and Sicily. In addition to making their own, the Romans also imported tons of cured sausage and ham from the Gauls. In any case, Apicius left us several sausages. By today’s standards, the recipes are rather cryptic, lacking complete instructions and measurements. The recipes below are reconstructed as best I can make out. The inquisitive scholar might want to take a look at the Latin text or a translation. A translation of the whole work has been reprinted by Dover Publications, and other translations are no doubt available.
Meanwhile, notice that the sample recipes below are very close to a modern sausage. But none of the original recipes listed salt or any sort of cure. Beware. My guess is that it never occurred to Apicius to list salt as an ingredient, as any fool would know to add salt to fresh pork. Salt was very much in demand in the Roman Empire, and, in fact, our word salary came from the Roman word for salt allowance, or ration. It has even been argued that the word sausage is derived from salt.
Mince some fresh pork. Add crushed pepper, cumin, savory, chopped parsley, and broth. Pound the mixture. Add some whole peppercorns and nuts. Stuff into casings and hang to smoke. The original recipe also called for rue, laurel berries, and “condiment.” Since I don’t know exactly what these are in modern culinary terms, I have left them out. The “nuts” could have been any of several, but my guess is that pine nuts were the favorite. In any case, if the recipe is made with reasonable amounts of meat and spices, it will be perfectly acceptable today. Try simmering the links for 15 minutes, then frying them.
Apicius has a recipe for sautéing sausage with the white part of chopped leeks and serving them with a wine sauce. I can’t piece together the sauce recipe, but a translator’s footnote speculates that the recipe came from Tarentum, a town of southern Italy noted for its wine and luxurious living. Anyhow, the sausage and chopped leeks is a very good sauté.
Poach the brains in a little water until cooked. Mix with raw chicken eggs, pine nuts, pepper, broth, and a little laser. (Laser was a very popular ancient wild herb. It was in great demand and, being picked too frequently, may now be extinct.) Stuff the mixture into hog casings. Simmer in water for a few minutes, then sauté or fry.
Since brains and eggs (scrambled together) are one of my favorite foods, I have cooked this recipe several times, using various leafy herbs in lieu of laser. Ordinary parsley will do. This sausage is very good, and these days brains are one of the best nutritional values available at our supermarkets and meat shops.
Spelt is an ancient wheat-like grain that is still available today. (I purchase whole spelt berries from King Arthur Flour, listed in Sources of Materials and Supplies, page 373.) Any hard wheat berry will do. First, cook the spelt or wheat berries in stock until tender. (It helps to soak the berries overnight in water.) Chop some bacon, hot fat (from around the innards), and fresh pork. Mix with the cooked spelt berries, crushed pepper, lovage, chicken eggs, pine nuts, and broth. Pound with a mortar and pestle. Stuff the mixture into hog casings. Poach in water for 20 minutes, then serve hot. These sausages can also be poached and fried or grilled. The Apicius text is a little unclear, but notes from translators indicate that this sausage was served with pheasant gravy flavored with cumin.
In any case, I hope that this recipe will introduce a few readers to spelt and wheat berries. They can be used in soups and stews, adding a delightful change of texture as well as taste, and will boost the recipes’ nutritional value tremendously. Why we Americans have neglected this healthful food is a cultural mystery to me.
Fennel dominates the seasonings in this mild sausage. I prefer to measure out the seeds, then crush them on a suitable surface with the flat side of a meat mallet. Most recipes, however, merely specify seeds. Suit yourself.
10 pounds pork butt or shoulder
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons fennel seed
1½ tablespoons white pepper
1 tablespoon dried sage
10 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups good red wine
hog casings
Cut the meat into chunks suitable for grinding. Spread the meat out on your work surface. Sprinkle evenly with the dry seasonings and garlic. Grind with a 3⁄16-inch plate. Work the wine into the ground meat. Stuff in hog casings or use as bulk sausage—or try half one way and half the other.
To cook, fry or bake. The stuffed sausages should be poached for about 15 minutes before frying in a little olive oil. This sausage can be refrigerated for several days, or frozen for longer storage.
This combination of tomato, eggplant, bulk Italian sausage, and Italian cheeses is one of my favorite dishes. Although the ingredient list below calls for flour, I sometimes dust the eggplant in fine stone-ground white cornmeal.
1 large eggplant
salt
olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped Italian tomatoes
2 cups tomato sauce
pepper to taste
1 pound bulk Italian mild sausage
flour, for dusting
1 cup freshly grated mozzarella cheese
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease a shallow 8- to 12-inch baking dish. Peel the eggplant and cut into ¼- to ½-inch slices. Sprinkle the slices on both sides with salt, then spread them out over absorbent paper. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet. Sauté the onion and garlic for 5 to 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce, stirring and heating through, adding salt and pepper to taste. In another skillet or saucepan, heat a little olive oil and sauté the sausage for a few minutes. Drain and mix the sausage into the tomato and onions. If needed, heat a little more olive oil. Pat the eggplant slices dry and sprinkle on both sides with flour, shaking off the excess. Sauté the eggplant slices until they are golden on both sides. Spread a little of the tomato-sausage mixture over the bottom of the baking dish. Cover with eggplant slices and a layer of both cheeses. Add another layer of tomato sauce, eggplant, and cheeses. End with tomato sauce. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil. Cover the dish and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes or so. Serve hot with plenty of crusty Italian bread, lots of fresh tossed salad, and vino.
I’ve seen several recipes for Sicilian or Italian sausage made with the aid of a grated dry cheese and wine. Some of these call for vermouth or chablis, but I say that a dry red wine is in order. I won’t insist on chianti, but it is a good choice and is usually readily available in America. Suit yourself. In any case, this recipe (and the name of the sausage) has been adapted from The Sausage-Making Cookbook, by Jerry Predika (who specifies dry vermouth). Rytek Kutas set forth a similar recipe in his Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing, listing Romano cheese and chablis wine; this, he said, is his favorite Italian sausage. In Home Sausage Making, Charles G. Reavis calls luganega unique because it is flavored with freshly grated lemon and orange zest. I might add that other sausages are flavored with orange or lemon peel, and in Catalonia, zest of the bitter Seville orange is used. In any case, I consider the wine and cheese to be the distinguishing ingredients.
10 pounds pork butt
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1½ teaspoons ground coriander
1½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
3 cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups dry vermouth
hog casings
Cut the meat into chunks suitable for grinding. Mix the salt, pepper, coriander, and nutmeg, sprinkling the mixture evenly over the meat. Grind it with a 3⁄16-inch plate. Mix in the garlic, orange zest, lemon zest, cheese, and wine. Stuff into hog casings. Cook immediately or freeze. (Freezing will alter the flavor somewhat.) Use in soups and stews, or poach for 15 minutes and then fry or grill.
Dean & Deluca, the New York mail-order outfit, specifies Jacob’s cattle beans for this recipe. These are large, quick-cooking beans, and I highly recommend them not only for taste and texture but also for color. Substitute calypso beans if you have them on hand. In Italy, Tuscans are called mangiafagiole, meaning “bean eaters.” This recipe goes a long way toward justification of the predilection.
½ pound Jacob’s cattle beans
1 pound luganega
1 large onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Rinse the beans. Simmer them in a pot, well covered with water, for 1 hour. Remove the pot from the heat but leave the beans in the hot water as you proceed. Place the sausage in a large skillet. Add enough water to measure 1 inch. Cook the sausage uncovered until almost all the water has evaporated, leaving the grease that will have cooked out of the sausage. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the sausage, slice into 1-inch pieces, and set aside. Add the tomatoes, sage, rosemary, salt, and pepper to the onions. Cover and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Add the sausage pieces and cooked beans. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot, along with crusty bread and red vino.
This excellent sausage, usually rather large, calls for pork and pork skin with the fat attached. It’s easy to use a fresh ham, cutting the meat and skin as needed. Stuff the sausage into small beef rounds or large hog casings.
7 pounds pork
3 pounds pork skin with fat
6 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cold water
small beef rounds or large hog casings
Cut the pork and skin into chunks suitable for grinding. Spread the chunks over the work surface, mixing well. Sprinkle the spices evenly over the pork, then grind with a 3⁄16-inch plate. Mix in the Parmesan, garlic, and water, working with your hands. Stuff the mixture into beef rounds or hog casings, tying off with twine in 8-inch lengths, leaving a loop on one end. Hang the links in a cool, breezy place for 4 to 5 days before cooking. If you don’t have a suitable place, clean out a section of your refrigerator and hang the links. To cook, simmer the links in water for 1½ hours. Prick the links with a fork while cooking. Traditionally, these sausages are served with lentils.
Note: Some coteghino recipes call for saltpeter. This ingredient will give the coteghino a reddish color, but I elect to leave it out. If you want it, use ⅓ teaspoon for the recipe, and be sure to mix it very evenly into the salt and other dry ingredients. Going the other way, another recipe calls for a greatly reduced quantity of salt, which I can’t recommend. In any case, remember that the recipe above is not for a fully cured sausage. It should be treated as a fresh sausage. In other words, it should be either cooked right away, refrigerated for a few days, or frozen for longer storage.