Italian Homemade Sausage, No Casings or Machine Needed

How to make juicy and good homemade sausage full of classic Italian flavours from fennel seeds, garlic, and red wine. These sausages can be made easily at home without any casings, skins or machine. Serve with polenta, a rich tomato sauce or with lentils for a classic Italian meal.

Italian sausages are like no other they're juicy, salty and packed with the most good seasonings from fresh herbs, garlic, and red wine. Add them to a tomato sauce for an instant kick of flavour, crumble them in with pasta on top of pizza or add them to a stew the list is endless and you know the flavour is going to be good!

Homemade Sausage Seasoning

The most common herbs found in Italian sausages are rosemary, oregano and fennel but there are a whole list of seasonings you could use when making them at home

• Chili flakes (dried or jarred)
• Nduja – a spicy Calabrian salami which is great mixed in
• Marjorum – dried
• Sage – fresh finely chopped
• Parsley – fresh finely chopped
• Red wine – gives a good rich flavour

What's the Best Meat to Use to Make Homemade Sausage?

Italian sausages are made with pork meat and contain a high percentage of fat because fat means flavour! To make the best homemade sausage we use minced pork shoulder.

Top Tip: Don't be tempted to use regular pork mince or ground pork from your supermarket because even the fattiest variety is not enough for these sausages. Ground pork also gives these sausages a fine texture that more resembles a burger rather than a juicy Italian sausage.

The trick is to buy diced pork shoulder and blitz it in a food processor at home (see photos 1 & 2 below) that way you can control the texture and know you're getting good quality meat. It should be fine with chunks of fat.

How to Make Homemade Sausage (without Casing or Machine) – Step By Step

Blitz the diced pork shoulder in a food processor for 30-60 seconds. You might need to do this in two batches depending on how powerful your processor is. It should be fine with chunks of fat (photo 2).

Next add the minced garlic, herbs and salt and pepper. use fresh rosemary and chop it fine, dried rosemary doesn't have as strong a flavour (photo 3).

Pour over the red wine and mix everything together until thoroughly combined using your hands (photos 4 – 7). Top Tip: If you see any sinew, long stretchy pieces of fat then remove it (see photo 6). There shouldn't be much at all.

Cover with cling film and let the meat marinate for at least 30 minutes if possible. Separate the pork sausage meat into 8 even portions then shape into a rough sausage shape (photo 8).

Lay out a small sheet of cling film and place the sausage meat at one of the widest edges. Roll it tightly without too much force and twist and tie the edges (photos 10 -12).

Bring a pot of water to a boil and turn off the heat. Add the sausages to the hot water for around 30 seconds so they firm up and keep their shape. Place on a plate and cut the edges to remove from the cling film (photos 13 & 14).

You can now let them cool and place in the fridge until you need them or fry them in a little olive oil in a large pan until browned on all sides and cooked through for around 10 minutes (photo 15).

Do the Casings Make a Difference?

Yes, there's a reason why sausages are made with casings because it keeps a ton of flavor in and keeps them moist and juicy. The thing is it can be a fiddly task and you also need a machine for mincing and piping the sausages.

By doing this way you get a ton of flavour there's no need for casings or a machine and the compromise is that they are a little less juicy but still damn good.

Ways to Serve Homemade Italian Sausages

To bring in the New Year Italian sausages are served with lentils as a sign of good luck and wealth for the coming year. It's good, healthy and easy to make. We also love to serve sausages with a red pepper sauce or tomato sauce with creamy silky soft polenta or roast potatoes.

Here are some more recipes to use your homemade sausage with:

• Easy Sausage Ragu with Ricotta Gnocchi – Use the seasoned sausage meat and don't roll into sausages
• Stracchino and Sausage Crostini – Use the raw meat for this recipe
• Sausage Stuffing Balls – Roll into balls instead of sausage shapes

Extra Tips for Making Italian Homemade Sausage

• Use high-quality pork meat with a good ratio of fat, we recommend pork shoulder
• Wrap the sausage meat tightly so no water gets inside
• You can prep the sausages in advance up to step 14 (see photo) and store them in the fridge to fry later
• If you are adding the meat to ragu, sauces or pizzas etc then use the marinaded meat as it is there's no need to form into a sausage shape

Ingredients

Makes 8 fat sausages (serves 4)

• 1.7 lbs (800g) pork shoulder (diced)
• 2 tbsp fennel seeds
• 4 cloves garlic (large) (minced)
• 1/4 cup (60ml) red wine
• 4 sprigs rosemary (fresh finely chopped)
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Special equipment

• cling film (plastic wrap)

Method

1. Blitz the diced pork shoulder in a food processor for 30-60 seconds. You might need to do this in two batches depending on how powerful your processor is. It should be fine with chunks of fat.

2. Next add the minced garlic, herbs and salt and pepper. Make sure to use fresh rosemary and chop it very fine, dried rosemary doesn't have as strong a flavour.

3. Pour over the red wine and mix everything together until thoroughly combined using your hands. If you see any sinew, long stretchy pieces of fat then remove it (see photo 6). There shouldn't be much at all.

4. Cover with cling film and let the meat marinate for at least 30 minutes if possible. Separate the pork sausage meat into 8 even portions then shape into a rough sausage shape.

5. Lay out a small sheet of cling film and place the sausage meat at one of the widest edges. Roll it tightly without too much force and twist and tie the edges.

6. Bring a pot of water to a boil and turn off the heat. Add the sausages to the hot water for around 30 seconds so they firm up and keep their shape. Place on a plate and cut the edges to remove from the cling film.

7. You can now let them cool and place in the fridge until you need them or fry them in a little olive oil in a large pan until browned on all sides and cooked through for around 10 minutes.

Kitchen notes

Top Tips for Making Italian Homemade Sausage

• Use high-quality pork meat with a good ratio of fat, we recommend pork shoulder
• Wrap the sausage meat tightly so no water gets inside
• You can prep the sausages in advance up to step 14 (see photo) and store them in the fridge to fry later
• If you are adding the meat to ragu, sauces or pizzas etc then use the marinaded meat as it is there's no need to form into a sausage shape

Homemade Sausage Seasoning

The most common herbs found in Italian sausages are rosemary, oregano and fennel but there are a whole list of seasonings you could use when making them at home

• Chili flakes (dried or jarred)
• Nduja a spicy Calabrian salami which is great mixed in
• Marjorum dried
• Sage fresh finely chopped
• Parsley fresh finely chopped
• Red wine give a good rich flavour