Italian Sausage

Among the many things I have given up in the food portion of my life, sausage was one of the toughest. I have been working on various recipes, and have more experiments planned. I find myself often trying to capture an elusive memory of the taste of a particular sausage that I haven't had in years, and cannot sample now, but this week I came up with the following recipe for Italian Sausage. I forgot to add the sugar, and the result was a flavorful sausage with a touch of heat. I am including the sugar on the list, since this was how I originally wrote the recipe (I will sample this again later). I try to use as many organic ingredients as possible, but I especially recommend it in the case of the meat, wine and balsamic vinegar.
• 1½ lbs ground pork
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1½ tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1½ Tbsp organic balsamic vinegar
• 1½ Tbsp organic red wine
• 1½ tsp paprika
• 1 tsp toasted and ground fennel seed
• 2¼ tsp oregano
• 2¼ tsp basil
• 1 tsp thyme
• 4 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• ¾ tsp crushed red pepper
• 1½ tsp raw sugar


Blend spices, wine and balsamic vinegar (and sugar if you are including it) and allow to mingle for a few moments.
Mix the spice blend into the ground meat thoroughly and refrigerate in a covered container.
Form into patties and either freeze for later use (thaw before cooking), or eat this with a day or so (keep in mind that when dealing with ground meat, safer is better). You can also brown loose, but I felt that the taste was more substantial in a patty.