Italian Sausage
What is Italian Sausage?
Italian sausage is made from seasoned ground pork stuffed into casing shells to produce links about 6 inches long. Typically it’s made with fennel seed and other seasoning ranging from garlic to red pepper flakes. That combination gives Italian sausage its distinctive flavor and character.
Italian sausage fits into so many fabulous recipes, such as sausage and peppers, sausage and pasta, or sausage hoagies with mounds of caramelized onion. Minestrone soup with Italian sausage cut into rounds is practically a feast all on its own. And it’s all made possible by proper preparation of the sausage.
Ingredients
4 Italian Sausage Links or as many as desiredwater
For hearty flavor and pure comfort, nothing beats Italian sausage. Below are three ways to cook Italian sausage: on the stovetop, in the oven or on the grill so it’s crispy brown and juicy every time.
Cooking sausage too high, too fast and unevenly can cause links to be too dark on the outside and still raw at the center or the skins to split and disintegrate.
Gradually bringing them up to heat, and turned for even browning will allow for perfect sausages. To avoid them curling you can skewer them lengthwise or place in a barbecue clamp.
Do You Need to Pierce the Skin?
No, please don’t! This is common tip appears on many recipes but it’s not ideal.
Unfortunately, this will cause the juices to escape, defeating the whole purpose of encasing meat in an impermeable membrane to hold the juices in.
Instructions
Note: Cooking times will vary based on thickness of the sausages.Stovetop
Place links in a skillet in water.
Bring slowly to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 -12 minutes, covered
Uncover, allow water to evaporate and continue cooking, turning frequently until browned.
Oven
Place links on foil-lined baking sheet.
Place in cold oven and turn heat to 350°F
Cook for 25-35 minutes or until internal temperature registers 160°F.
Grill - Full confession, I do not grill. Not anything. Decades ago, my first attempt at grilling almost caught our deck on fire, (due to a defective grill), and I never touched a grill again! So these methods are from grilling blogs:
Place links on a 375°F grill and close the lid.
Turn every 5 mins until uniformly browned about 15 to 20 minutes or until the pork reaches 160°F.
Hints from people who know how to grill: Grilling sausage is not easy. Cooking a sausage all the way through before it burns on the outside is tricky, and flare ups from dripping fat make it even harder…if you cook them over direct heat. Sausages are a prime candidate for sear-roasting on the grill. Start them over indirect heat, and leave them there until they are cooked through. Then, brown the sausage quickly over direct heat to finish.