Thoughts for Food: Sausage

Sausage makes a regular appearance on our menus, particularly this time of year when hearty and filling comfort food is in order.  We still lean toward meals where veggies can play a strong supporting, if not starring role, but we find that sausage gives winter meals that little something-something needed to beat the chill and satisfy the appetite. Sausage is extremely versatile in the kitchen, quick to cook and widely varying in flavor.  It's as simple to slice and add to a dish as it is to serve on its own.  It's fantastic in hearty soups, especially when paired with potato, delectable in rustic dishes like polenta and always delicious in a bun with sauteed onions and mustard... a phenomenon known as Chicago-style... don't even think about ketchup.  It's also a huge hit on the breakfast table when paired with something sweet like pancakes or bread pudding or something homey like grits.  All that said, and even with the limitless breadth of sausage possibilities available, we do consistently return to a few tried and true favorites which we've described below.

For dishes that call for a loose sausage (i.e. sausage that has not been stuffed into a casing), we consistently order about 3lbs of the turkey variety from the butcher (or in our case, the Whole Foods meat counter).  We find that 3 lbs of loose sausage is almost always adequate for serving 30-40 people, at least in the recipes you'll find posted here.  If you like things meatier, feel free to order more, but 3lbs is probably as low as you want to go.  We find that using turkey rather than pork sausage gives us all the flavor but much less saturated fat.  For spicy or south-of-the border recipes, we order turkey chorizo.  For Southern recipes where we mix sausage and grits, we order turkey breakfast sausage.   For topping a pizza, or for a spicy pasta sauce, we order loose turkey Italian.  Almost any sausage you can think of can be made using ground turkey (or even ground chicken) rather than ground pig and your heart will thank you.  3lbs of custom-order, loose turkey sausage (hormone-free and naturally-raised when purchased at Whole Foods) typically comes in around $18 dollars-- not bad when you consider that's enough meat for an entire meal for 40.

For dishes that call for a cased sausage, we still stick to poultry varieties.  On rare occasion, we're able to shop a sale at the Whole Foods meat counter, usually when the price begins to dip below $3-4/ lb.  Most often, we pick up the Trader Joe's store brand or buy bulk packages of Amy's brand at Costco.  For breakfast sausage, we love Amy's Apple and Gouda Chicken sausages.  (Our diners love them, too-- we simply can't serve enough at the men's shelter.)  For spicy soups like gumbo, andouille or cajun sausages are delicious.  For slicing and mixing into pasta bakes, spinach-feta or sundried tomato-basil are always a hit.  For serving on a bun as a traditional sandwich, we find that serving two or three varieties works best, as guest appreciate the option to choose their favorite.