Comments on: Sausages with Peppers http://almostitalian.com/sausages-with-peppers/ Recipes and Stories from the \'Little Italy\' Communities Across America: An Online Book-in-Progress Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:37:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Stromboli: Take Two | Almost Italian http://almostitalian.com/sausages-with-peppers/comment-page-1/#comment-275 Stromboli: Take Two | Almost Italian Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:38:39 +0000 http://almostitalian.com/main-courses/sausages-with-peppers/#comment-275 [...] Sausage and Peppers [...] [...] Sausage and Peppers [...]

]]> By: Grace http://almostitalian.com/sausages-with-peppers/comment-page-1/#comment-101 Grace Sun, 11 May 2008 05:15:00 +0000 http://almostitalian.com/main-courses/sausages-with-peppers/#comment-101 Sausage-making in our family was a yearly event in mid-summer. My parents held all aspects of the process close, but I do know they pooled their money with friends from our small local Italian community to buy a large amount of a select variety of meats and casing from the butcher. My parents made a few pounds of sausage as a trial run, then compared notes with their friends and adjusted their recipes accordingly. (The closest I myself have come to this practice was when I lived in New Mexico and the new crop of chiles was roasted in the fall. After the first batch of green chile stew or rellenos, we all compared notes about the flavor and heat of the latest crop.) My parents made two or three batches of sausage, generally mild tasting and sweet with fennel, though highly peppered. Their sausage had a low fat content so the skin broke easily, and it cut like a roasted meat. We usually ate the sausage plain and lightly grilled in a cast iron pan as a main dish, with vegetable side dishes. My mother fed my father the cold leftovers mixed together in a sandwich for lunch. My parents treated their sausages like a prize, freely shared it, and when it was gone it was gone. I know they didn't make sausage until the boys were on their own and out of the house because they couldn't afford it until then. I still long for a taste of that sausage, and for one especially memorable batch that actually contained sirloin they made the year I moved out on my own. (Sigh.) Sausage-making in our family was a yearly event in mid-summer. My parents held all aspects of the process close, but I do know they pooled their money with friends from our small local Italian community to buy a large amount of a select variety of meats and casing from the butcher.

My parents made a few pounds of sausage as a trial run, then compared notes with their friends and adjusted their recipes accordingly. (The closest I myself have come to this practice was when I lived in New Mexico and the new crop of chiles was roasted in the fall. After the first batch of green chile stew or rellenos, we all compared notes about the flavor and heat of the latest crop.)

My parents made two or three batches of sausage, generally mild tasting and sweet with fennel, though highly peppered. Their sausage had a low fat content so the skin broke easily, and it cut like a roasted meat.

We usually ate the sausage plain and lightly grilled in a cast iron pan as a main dish, with vegetable side dishes. My mother fed my father the cold leftovers mixed together in a sandwich for lunch.

My parents treated their sausages like a prize, freely shared it, and when it was gone it was gone. I know they didn’t make sausage until the boys were on their own and out of the house because they couldn’t afford it until then.

I still long for a taste of that sausage, and for one especially memorable batch that actually contained sirloin they made the year I moved out on my own. (Sigh.)

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