Butcher Son came home from his new gig in the meat department at Roberts of Woodside the other day asking about new flavors of sausages for them to make. I gave this some thought and came up with several, most of which he shot down. Hrmmpph, see if I help him again. But I did. I actually decided to make one of my own suggestions this week, a Porcini-Cabernet Sausage. I thought it wouldn’t be too terribly difficult to figure out amounts and ingredients, not too expensive to make, and would be a great accompaniment to a pasta dish. So yesterday, after having baked too many loaves of banana and pumpkin breads, I sliced some up, packed it in with some homemade Peach/Ginger Butter and headed up to Roberts to barter for some sausage casings. Needless to say, they were happy to oblige. (They had already learned I make a mean pickle and some kick-ass cinnamon rolls.)
So today, I embarked on my first-ever excursion to develop a recipe for sausage. I got out my two buck Chuck, went and harvested some fresh thyme from my backyard, and set to work. It wasn’t too hard, and came together without so much as a hiccup. I fried up a test batch before casing it, and sure enough, it was very tasty. So this afternoon, we set up my fifteen-year-old Kitchen Aid mixer with the grinder and sausage attachments and made up some links. While I have not cooked them yet, I have faith, and so does my son…he took three of them up to the store for the owner and butchers to taste.
Porcini-Cabernet Sausage
1 oz dried porcini
2 cups cabernet sauvignon (I used Two Buck Chuck)
2 lbs ground pork
2 t fresh thyme
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 t coarse salt
1 t coarse black pepper
Optional: 1 cup shredded parmesan or asiago cheese
Heat wine to boil and take off heat. Add porcini and soak for 30-60 minutes. Remove porcini and bring remaining wine to a boil, reducing to ½ cup. Cool (use ice water bath to shorten cooling time). Finely chop porcini. In large bowl, mix pork, porcini, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper, as well as the reduced ½ cup of wine. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for 2 hours. Stuff into casings. Refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze.
To cook, fry in a bit of oil until brown on all sides, then add in ½ cup of water and cover. Cook until water boils away. Serve.